
f. m.hex&mer 




Class 

Bodk_ 

Copyright^ 

COPYKlGlil DEPOSIT. 



<£ 




ASPARAGUS 

ITS CULTURE FOR HOME 
USE AND FOR MARKET 



A PRACTICAL TREATISE ON THE 
PLANTING, CULTIVATION, HAR- 
VESTING, MARKETING, AND PRE- 
SERVING OF ASPARAGUS, WITH 
NOTES ON ITS HISTORY AND 
BOTANY :::::::: 



BY 

F. M. HEXAMER 



ILLUSTRATED 



NEW YORK 

ORANGE JUDD COMPANY 
1901 






T^-'F ' Q F,ARY OF 

ESS, 
Two Co £3 Received 

NOV. 21 1901 

..... 1t-lCfff { 



a. / -v- <? tt- 
COI ■-, 



«c <c ■•• i. 

!■■ ' II —4 



Copyright, igoi 

by orange; judd company 






TABLE OF CONTENTS 















PAGE 




Preface . vi 


I. 


Historical Sketch 










I 


II. 


Botany .... 










4 


III. 


Cultural Varieties . 










17 


IV. 


Seed Growing . 










26 


V. 


The Raising of Plants 










30 


VI. 


Selection of Plants . 










3S 


VII. 


The Soil and Its Preparation 










43 


VIII. 


Planting .... 










49 


IX. 


Cultivation 










61 


X. 


Fertilizers and Fertilizing 










72 


XI. 


Harvesting and Marketing 










83 


XII. 


Forcing .... 










100 


XIII. 


Preserving Asparagus 










112 


XIV. 


Injurious Insects 










126 


XV. 


Fungus Diseases 










137 


XVI. 


Asparagus Culture in Different Localities 




MS 




Index .... 










167 



ILLUSTRATIONS 



Beginning of the Asparagus Industry in California 

Frontispiece 



Asparagus Plumosus Nanus 
Asparagus Sprengeri .... 

Asparagus Laricinus .... 

Asparagus Racemosus, var. Tetragonus 
Asparagus Sarmentosus 
Crown, Roots, Buds, Spear 
Stem Leaves, Flowers, Berries 
Flowers ...... 

Palmetto Asparagus .... 

Pot-Grown Plant .... 

Horizontal Development of Roots 
Trenches Ready for Planting 
Hudson's Trencher .... 

Root in Proper Position for Covering 
Cross-section of Trenches After Planting 
Asparagus Field Ridged in Early Spring 
Leveling the Ridges After Cutting Season 
Fertilized Asparagus Plot . 
Unfertilized Asparagus Plot 
Basket of Asparagus .... 

Cutting and Picking Up Asparagus . 
Horse Carrier for Ten Boxes 
Asparagus Knives .... 

iv 



PAGE 

5 

7 

9 

1 1 

12 

14 
14 
15 

21 

37 
5i 

57 
5S 
59 
6o 

67 
69 

75 
77 
85 
86 
S7 
89 



ILLUSTRATIONS 



End and Side View of White Asparagus Bunches 

Conover's Asparagus Buncher . 

Watt's Asparagus Buncher 

Rack and Knives Used in New England . 

At the Bunching Table .... 

Box of Giant Asparagus .... 

Southern Asparagus Crate .... 

Tunnel for Forcing Steam Through the Soil 
A Long Island Asparagus Cannery . 
Sterilizing Tank ...... 

Sterilizing Room ...... 

Interior View of a California Asparagus Cannery 
Perspective View of a California Asparagus Canne 
Cannery in Asparagus Fields 
Common Asparagus Beetle 
Asparagus Attacked by Beetles 
Spotted Ladybird .... 

Twelve-spotted Asparagus Beetle 
Asparagus Stems Affected with Rust 
Portion of Rusted Asparagus Stems . 
Asparagus Field on Bouldin Island . 



ry 



PAGE 
90 

91 
92 

93 

94 
97 
98 
107 
113 
115 
"7 
119 
121 
123 
127 
129 
131 
134 
13S 
139 
161 



PREFACE 



The cultivation of asparagus for home use as 
well as for market is so rapidly increasing, 
jjHiy) and reliable information pertaining to it is so 
frequently asked for, that a book on this sub- 
ject is evidently needed. While all works on vegetable 
culture treat more or less extensively on its cultiva- 
tion, so far there has been no book exclusively devoted 
to asparagus published in America. Asparagus is 
one of the earliest, most delicious, and surest products 
of the garden. Its position among other vegetables is 
unique, and when once planted it lasts a lifetime; it 
may be prepared for use in great variety, and may be 
canned or dried so as to be available at any time of 
the year; and yet in the great majority of farm gar- 
dens it is almost unknown. The principal reason for 
this neglect is based upon the erroneous idea that 
asparagus culture requires unusual skill, expense, and 
hard work. While this was true, in a measure, under 
old-time rules, modern methods have so simplified 
every detail connected with the cultivation of aspara- 
gus as to make it not necessarily more expensive and 
laborious than that of any other garden crop. To de- 



PREFACE Vll 

scribe and make clear these improved methods, to 
demonstrate how easily and inexpensively an asparagus 
bed may be had in every garden, and how much pleas- 
ure, health, and profit may be derived from the crop 
have been the principal inducements to writing this 
book. 

In a popular treatise on so widely distributed a 
vegetable as asparagus, the cultivation of which had 
been brought to a high state of development many 
centuries before the Christian era, there is little oppor- 
tunity for originality. All that the author has en- 
deavored in this little volume has been to collect, 
arrange, classify, and systematize all obtainable facts, 
compare them with his own many years' experience in 
asparagus culture, and present his inferences in a plain 
and popular manner. Free use has been made of all 
available literature, especially helpful among which 
has been the Farmers' Bulletin No. 61 of the United 
States Department of Agriculture, by R. B. Handy ; 
also bulletins of the Missouri, New York, Ohio, New 
Jersey, North Carolina, Maryland, Massachusetts, and 
South Carolina and other experiment stations; the 
files of American Agriculturist; Gardener' s Chronicle , 
from which descriptions of several ornamental species 
by William Watson were condensed; Thome's " Flora 
von Deutschland; " " Eintraegliche Spargelzucht," 
von Franz Goeschke; " BraunschweigerSpargelbuch," 



Vlll ASPARAGUS 

von Dr. Ed. Brinckmeier; "Parks and Gardens of 
Paris," by William Robinson; " Asparagus Culture," 
by James Barnes and William Robinson; " L,es Plantes 
Potageres," by Vilmorin-Andrieux; the works of 
Peter Henderson, Thomas Bridgeman, J. C. Loudon, 
and others. 

The author desires to express his grateful acknowl- 
edgments to Mr. Herbert Myrick, editor-in-chief of 
American Agriculturist and allied publications, for 
critically reading the whole manuscript; to Prof. W. 
G. Johnson, Charles V. Mapes, C. L. Allen, A. D. 
McNair, Superintendent Southern Pines Experimental 
Farm; Prof. W. F. Massey, Robert W. Nix, Robert 
Hickmott, Charles W. Prescott, Joel Borton, and all 
others who by their help, suggestions, and advice have 
aided him in the preparation of this work. 

F. M. Hexamer. 

New York, /go/. 



ASPARAGUS 



HISTORICAL SKETCH 



The word ' ' asparagus ' ' is said to be of Persian 
origin. In middle L,atin it appears as spara- 
'^®S^ gus; Italian, sparajio; old French, esperaje; 
old English, spcragc, sparage, sperach. The 
middle Latin form, sparagus, was in English changed 
into sparagrass,^ sparrow-grass, and sometimes simply 
grass, terms which were until recently in good literary 
use. In modern French it is aspcrge; German, spargel; 
Dutch, aspergie; Spanish, esperrago. 

The original habitat of the edible asparagus is 
not positively known, as it is now found naturalized 
throughout Europe, as well as in nearly all parts of 
the civilized world. How long the plant was used as 
a vegetable or as a medicine is likewise uncertain, but 
that it was known and highly prized by the Romans 
at least two centuries before the Christian era is his- 
torically recorded. According to Pliny, the Romans 
were already aware of the difference in quality, that 
grown near Ravenna 'being considered best, and was 
so large that three spears weighed one pound. The 
elder Cato has treated the subject with still greater 
care. He advises the sowing of the seed of asparagus 
in the beds of vine-dressers' reeds, which are culti- 



2 ASPARAGUS 

vated in Italy for the support of the vines, and that 
they should be burned in the spring of the third year, 
as the ashes would act as a manure to the future crop. 
He also recommends that the plants be renewed after 
eight or nine years. 

The usual method of preparing asparagus pursued 
by the Roman cooks was to select the finest sprouts 
and to dry them. When wanted for the table they 
were put in hot water and cooked a few minutes. To 
this practice is owing one of Emperor Augustus's 
favorite sayings: " Citius quam asparagi coquentur , ' t 
( Do it quicker than you can cook asparagus). 

While the indigenous asparagus has been used from 
time immemorial as a medicine by Gauls, Gertnans, 
and Britons, its cultivation and use as a vegetable was 
only made known to the people by the invading 
Roman armies. But in the early part of the sixteenth 
century it was mentioned among the cultivated srarden 

. . r . > 

vegetables, and Leonard Meager, in his " English 
Gardener," published in 1683, informs us that in 
his time the London market was well supplied with 
' ' forced ' ' asparagus. 

The medicinal virtues formerly attributed to as- 
paragus comprise a wide range. The roots, sprouts, 
and seeds were used as medicine. The fresh roots are 
diuretic, perhaps owing to the immediate crystalizable 
principle, " asparagine," which is said to be sedative 
in the dose of a few grains. A syrup made of the 
young shoots and an extract of the roots has been 
recommended as a sedative in heart affections, and the 
species diuretica — a mixture of asparagus, celery, pars- 
ley , holly, and sweet fennel — was a favorite preparation 



HISTORICAL SKETCH 3 

for use in dropsy and gravel. Among the Greeks and 
Romans -it was one of the oldest and most valued med- 
icines, and to which most absurd virtues were attrib- 
uted. It was believed that if a person anointed 
himself with a liniment made of asparagus and oil 
the bees would not approach or sting him. It was 
also believed that if the root be put on a tooth which 
aches violently it causes it to come out without pain. 
The therapeutic virtues of asparagus seem to have 
been held in almost as high esteem by the ancients as 
those of ginseng are esteemed by the Chinese to this 
day 



II 

BOTANY 



The genus Asparagus belongs to the Lily Family. 
It comprises about one hundred and fifty 
i^Hyj) species, and these are spread through the 
temperate and tropical regions of the Old 
World. One-half of these species are indigenous to 
South Africa, and it is from this region that the 
most ornamental of the greenhouse species have been 
obtained. 

All the species are perennial, with generally fleshy 
roots or tubers. The stems are annual in some, 
perennial in others, most of them being spiny, climbing 
shrubs, growing to a length of from five to twenty or 
even fifty feet. The true leaves are usually changed 
into spines, which are situated at the base of the 
branches and are often stout and woody. The false 
leaves, termed cladodia, are the linear or hair-like 
organs which are popularly called leaves ; they are in 
reality modified branches. These cladodia are nearly 
always arranged in clusters at intervals along the 
branches, and the flowers generally spring from their 
axils. They usually fall off the hardy species in 
winter, and they are easily affecled by unfavorable 
conditions in all the species. Most of them flower and 
fruit freely under cultivation, so that seeds are avail- 
able for propagation. 



ASPARAGUS 



ORNAMENTAL SPECIES 



A. mcdcoloides (Myrsiphyllum asparagoidcs), popu- 
larly known as Smilax. — For many years this has been, 
and is yet, one of the most commonly grown and the 
most serviceable of the plants used by florists as 
' ' green. " It is readily grown from seed in the green- 
house. . While a few other species of asparagus have 
been close rivals, it is yet unexcelled for many pur- 
poses of floral decorations. 

A. plumosus (the plumy asparagus). — A very 
graceful climbing plant which for finer decoration has 
largely taken the place of smilax, its foliage being finer 
than that of the most delicate ferns, and will last for 
weeks after being cut. The whole plant is of a 
bright, cheerful green. Its branches spread horizon- 
tally, and branch again in such a manner as to form a 
flat, frond-like arrangement, the leaves being very 
numerous, in clusters of about a dozen, bright green, 
and one-half inch long. A native of South Africa, 
where it climbs over bushes and branches in moist 
situations. There are several named varieties of this, 
most of which have originated in gardens. The most 
distinct are A . tcnuissimus and A. plumosus nanus, the 
fern-like appearance of which is seen in Fig. 2. 

A. Sprengcri. — This is one of the best and most 
attractive house plants of recent introduction. It is 
of graceful form and habit when grown as a pot plant, 
but it is equally well suited for planting in hanging 
baskets. Its fronds are frequently four feet long, of a 
rich shade of green, and very useful for cutting, retain- 
ing their freshness for weeks after being cut. As a 




FIG. 3 — ASPARAGUS Sl'KENGERI 



8 ASPARAGUS 

house plant it has exceeded expectations, as it stands 
dry atmosphere better than the older kinds of orna- 
mental asparagus, and is not particular as to any 
special position. It delights in a well-enriched soil, 
rather light in composition, with plenty of drainage, 
and grows very rapidly. It is decidedly pretty when 
in bloom, its little flowers being pure white on short 
racemes, and the anthers are of a bright orange color. 
Fig. 3 gives a good idea of its graceful habit. 

A. falcatus. — One of the most striking twining 
plants for a large, temperate house. At the Kew 
Gardens, in London, England, is an enormous speci- 
men of this species which is trained against the north- 
ern staircase, where it has formed a perfect thicket 
two yards through and twenty-five feet high, of long, 
rope-like, intertwining, spinous, fawn-colored stems, 
some of them fully fifty feet long, and clothed with 
wiry, woody branches, bearing whorls of leaves from 
two to three inches long and nearly one-fourth of an 
inch wide, falcate and bright green. The young stems 
are thick and succulent and gray-green, mottled with 
brown. For large conservatories, and particularly in 
moist, shady corners, where ordinary climbers will 
not thrive, this is an ideal plant. It is a native of 
the tropics of Asia and Africa, as well as the Cape. 

A. laricimis (Fig. 4). — This handsome species 
has been in the Kew collection at least twenty years. 
It is grown in the succulent house, where, from a 
vigorous root system, it sends up annual stout succu- 
lent shoots, which grow to a length of about twelve 
feet, and when fully developed are decidedly orna- 




FIG. 4 — ASPARAGUS LARICINUS 



IO ASPARAGUS 

mental. The stems are perennial, terete, dark brown, 
woody, one-half inch in diameter at the base, very 
spinous, freely branched, and branches zigzag and 
gray, the leaves in clusters one-fourth inch apart, hair- 
like, one and one-half inches long, bright green, per- 
sistent. Flowers axillary, many in a cluster, small, 
campanulate, white. Berries globose, dull red, one 
seeded, one-sixth of an inch in diameter. Common 
in various parts of South Africa. It is an excellent 
pillar plant. 

A. racemosus. — This species is spread throughout 
the tropics of Africa and Asia; the Cape form of it is 
represented at Kew under the name of variety tctra- 
gonus, as shown in Fig. 5. This is a vigorous grower, 
with woody stems nine feet long, prickly at the base, 
fawn colored, freely branching above, each branch 
having at its base a sharp spine three-quarters of an 
inch long. The leaves are of a gray-green hue, four- 
angled, one-quarter of an inch long. Flowers in 
racemes two inches long, whitish, very fragrant. Berry 
red, globose, pulpy, one-seeded. An excellent climber 
for rafters, pillars, etc., growing vigorously under 
ordinary treatment. Its root system is a dense mass 
of tubers. 

A. sarmoifov/s (Fig. 6). — An elegant evergreen 
species from v South Africa, where it grows freely in 
moist situations, forming dense, brushy stems with short 
prickles, and studded with white, starry, fragrant flow- 
ers, which are followed with bright scarlet, pea-like 
berries ; has stems four feet high, freely branched and 
clothed with dark green fiat leaves three inches long. 




FIG. 5 — ASPARAGUS RACEMOSUS, VAK. TETRAGON! 








FIG. 6— ASPARAGUS SARMENTOSUS 



BOTANY 13 

It is also grown in pots and baskets for the Cape-house, 
and when in flower it is greatly admired. 

A. Broussoneti. — A beautiful hardy perennial 
climber from the Canary Islands, growing ten feet 
high ; feathery foliage and scarlet berries. In the 
autumn this is very ornamental. 

Among the most noteworthy of other ornamental 
species are: A. Aethiopicus, Africanus, Asiaticus, Coop- 
er/, crispus, dedinatus, dccumbens, lucidus, retrqfrac- 
tiis, scandens, temtifolius, trichophyllus, umbellatus, 
verticillatus, virgatus, etc., etc. 

EDIBLE SPEC IKS 

Asparagus officinalis. — While the young sprouts of 
a few other species may be used as food, this is the 
only one which has found a permanent place in culti- 
vation. It is a branching, herbaceous plant, reaching 
a hight of from three to seven feet ; the filiform 
branchlets, three to seven inches long, less than one- 
quarter inch thick, are mostly clustered in the axils of 
minute scales. The rootstock, or "crown," is peren- 
nial, and makes a new growth each year of from one 
to three inches, extending horizontally, and generally 
in a straight line. It may propagate from both ends, 
or from only one, but in either case the older part of 
root stalk becomes unproductive and finally dies. 
Fig. 7 shows the new portion of the rootstock crowned 
with buds for the production of new shoots, while the 
older portion bears the scars and dead scales of pre- 
vious growths. From the sides and the low r er part of 
the rootstock numerous cylindrical, flesh}- roots start 




FIG. 7 — ASPARAGUS CROWN, 

ROOTS, BUDS, AND 

SPEAR 



i Ii,. 8 — ASPARAGl S S I EM, 

1 EAVES, FLOWERS, 

AND BERRIES 



BOTANY 



15 



and extend several feet horizontally, but do not pene- 
trate the soil deeply. In the course of time the older 
roots become hollow and inactive without becoming 
detached from the rootstock. The young root forma- 
tion always takes place a little above the old roots, 
which circumstance explains why the asparagus plants 
gradually rise above the original level, thus necessi- 
tating the annual hilling up or the covering of the 
crowns with additional soil. 

The asparagus flowers are mostly solitary at the 






nodes, of greenish-yellow color, drooping or filiform, 
jointed peduncles ; perianth, six-parted, campauulate, 
as seen in Fig. 8. Anthers, introrse ; style, short ; 
stigma, three-lobed; berry, red, spherical, three-celled ; 
cells, two-seeded. While the flowers are generally 
dioecious — staminate and pistillate flowers being borne 
on different plants — there appear also hermaphrodite 
flowers, having both pistils and fully developed sta- 
mens in the same flower. Fig. 9 shows a pistillate, 
Fig. 10 a staminate, and Fig. 11 a hermaphrodite or 
bisexual flower. 



1 6 ASPARAGUS 

In one case, at least, the author has also observed 
that a plant which has been barren of seed at first 
changed into a seed-bearing plant the following year. 
Similar changes in the sexuality of strawberries have 
been observed under certain conditions. These facts 
may explain, in a measure, the difficulty experienced 
in raising permanently sterile asparagus plants. 

Asparagus acutifolins. — A native of Southern 
Europe and Northern Africa. It has a fleshy root- 
stock, hard, wiry, brown stems, five to seven feet high, 
with rigid branches three to six inches long, thickly 
closed, with tufts of gray-green, hair-like, rigid leaves, 
which in exposed situations are almost spinous. Flow- 
ers yellow, a quarter of an inch in diameter, fragrant. 
The young sprouts are tender, and, when cooked, of 
a peculiar aromatic flavor. In their native home they 
are used like the cultivated kind. 

A. aphyllus. — Indigenous to Greece, where the 
young shoots are commonly used as food, especially 
during Lent. 



Ill 

CULTURAL VARIETIES 

"Although but one species of edible asparagus 
has found its way into general cultivation, 



many varieties and strains are recognized. 
Up to within a comparatively recent period 
it was thought that there existed only one distinct 
kind, or variety, of asparagus. As late as 1869 so keen 
an observer as Peter Henderson believed that ' ' the 
asparagus of our gardens is confined to only one 
variety, and the so-called giant can be made gigantic 
or otherwise, just as we will it, and the purple top 
variety will become a green top whenever the compo- 
sition of the soil is not of the kind to develop the 
purple, and vice versa. All practical gardeners know 
how different soils and climates change the appear- 
ance of the same variety. Seeds of cabbage taken 
from the same bag and sown at the same time, but 
planted out in soils of light sandy loam, heavy clayey 
loam, and peat or leaf-mold, will show such marked 
differences when at maturity as easily to be pro- 
nounced different sorts. This, no doubt, is the reason 
why the multitude of varieties of all vegetables, when 
planted side by side to test them, are so wonderfully 
reduced in number." 

But after inspecting an acre of ordinary asparagus 
and an acre of Abraham Van Siclen's Colossal — which 
was afterward introduced as Conover's Colossal- -at 



I 8 ASPARAGUS 

Jamaica, L,. I., N. Y., Mr. Henderson wrote: "A 
thorough inspection of the roots of each lot proved 
that they were of the same age when planted. The 
soil was next examined, and found to be as near the 
same as could be, yet these two beds of asparagus 
showed a difference that no longer left me a shadow 
of a doubt of their being entirely different varieties." 

In but few vegetables do the conditions of soil, 
locality, mode of cultivation, and other circumstances 
affect the quality, size, and appearance as much as in 
asparagus. It is therefore difficult to distinguish 
fixed and permanent varieties from mere local strains 
and forms secured by selection. 

Through natural and artificial selection, through 
use of seed of strong shoots from superior roots, there 
has been improvement in the size and yield of aspara- 
gus; from the peculiar adaptability of soil and climate, 
and the effect of manure and high cultivation, there 
have appeared certain variations in the product of dif- 
ferent beds which have led to the bestowing of a new 
name; but the effect of this care and these favorable 
conditions is not sufficiently strong to produce distinct 
varieties with fixed characteristics. Therefore, with 
correct and rational treatment of the plant from the 
time of seeding through all the stages of culture, satis- 
factory results may be reached with almost any of the 
varieties on the market. 

AMERICAN VARIETIES 

Barf s Mammoth (Barr's Philadelphia Mammoth). 
— Originated with Crawford Barr, a prominent market 
gardener of Pennsylvania. It is one of the earliest 



CULTURAL VARIETIES 1 9 

varieties, is very productive, and grows to the largest 
size. In Philadelphia it is much sought after, and brings 
the highest prices. 

Conover's Colossal (Van Siclen's Colossal).— Origi- 
nated with Abraham Van Sicleii, of L,ong Island, N. Y. , 
and was introduced by S. B. Conover, a commision 
merchant of West Washington Market, New York 
City, some thirty years ago. The superiority of this 
variety over all other kinds known at that time made 
it soon supplant all other varieties, and it is to this day 
better and more favorably known than any other sort. 

Columbian Mammoth White. — This was introduced 
by D. M. Fern- & Co., in 1893. The immense shoots 
are clear white, and, in favorable weather, remain so 
until three or four inches above the surface, without 
earthing up or any other artificial blanching. The 
crown or bud of the young stalk is considerably smaller 
than the part just below it, thus further distinguishing 
the variety. All but a very few of the seedlings will 
produce clear white shoots, and the green ones can be 
readily distinguished and rejected when planting the 
permanent bed. 

Donald's Elmira, — Originated by A. Donald, 
Elmira, N. Y., and was first introduced by Johnson & 
Stokes, Philadelphia, Pa. This is characterized by 
the delicate green color of its stems, different from any 
other kind. Its stalks are very tender and succulent, 
while its size is all that can be desired. 

Eclipse (Dreer's Eclipse). — A light green mammoth 
strain of excellent quality and attractive appearance. 
The stalks, not rarely, measure two inches in diameter, 



20 ASPARAGUS 

and even when twelve to fifteen inches long are per- 
fectly tender and of a delicate light green color. 

Hub. — Originated in New Hampshire several years 
ago, and was introduced by Joseph Breck & Sons, 
Boston, Mass. Although not generally catalogued, it 
is a distinct and valuable variety that has made a 
decided record for itself in the tests of the Kansas Ex- 
periment Station, where its yield, by weight, was 
greater than any other. 

Mammoth. — This is a somewhat indefinite term, as 
almost any prominent seedsman and grower who has a 
particularly good and large strain of asparagus suffixes 
it to his own name. Among the best known of these 
are Vick's Mammoth, Maule's Mammoth, Prescott's 
Mammoth, etc. 

Moore^s Cross-bred. — This originated with J. B. 
Moore, who for twenty years was awarded the first 
prize on asparagus at the exhibitions of the Massa- 
chusetts Horticultural Society, at one of which the 
weight of twelve stalks was 4 pounds 6 ' 4 ounces. It 
retains the head close until the stalks are quite long, 
and is of uniform color, while for tenderness and 
eating quality it is excelled by none. It is particularly 
recommended for cultivation in New England. 

Palmetto. — A variety of Southern origin, but suit- 
able for the North also. At the South it is somewhat 
earlier than Conover's Colossal, but its great advantage 
is that it is almost destitute of, what dealers call, culls, 
nearly all shoots being of a uniform and large size. 
The bunch from which the engraving ( Fig. 12) was 
made measured twenty-two inches in circumference, 



CULTURAL VARIETIES 21 

and contained forty-eight stalks of nine inches in 
length and remarkably uniform in size. It was taken 
on March 30th from a field of fifty acres, near 
Charleston, S. C. But the greatest point in its favor 
is its comparative security from the attacks of rust. 
Purple Top and Green Top. — These were the only 




FIG. 12 — BUNCH OK PALMETTO ASPARAGUS 



distinct sorts in cultivation before the introduction of 
Conover's Colossal, but are now almost unknown to 
the trade and cultivators. 

EUROPEAN VARIETIES 
The named varieties of asparagus of European 
origin are very numerous, as almost every locality in 
which asparagus is cultivated extensively and success- 
fully has given its name to a strain more or less dis- 



2 2 ASPARAGUS 

tinet. Generally these varieties differ only in a single 
characteristic, and these differences, for the most part, 
are so little that they are lost when grown under 
different climatic and soil conditions. The best-in- 
formed authorities recognize three cultivated varieties, 
which have distinct commercial characteristics and 
whose seeds reproduce them in the seedlings. 

German Giant. — This variety embraces most of the 
German and French sorts — the Giant Dutch Purple, 
Ulm Giant, Giant Brunswick, Large Erfurt, Early 
Darmstadt, and many others. 

Argenteuil. — Of this three sub-varieties are recog- 
nized — the early, intermediate, and late; and these are 
the kinds grown almost exclusively in the vicinity of 
Paris, France, where its culture and improvement have 
steadily developed for centuries. Under good culture 
the late Argenteuil produces stalks from three to six 
inches in circumference, at eight inches below the tips. 

Yellow Burgundy, — The distinctive characteristic 
of this variety is that the young shoots below the sur- 
face of the soil are light yellow instead of white to tips, 
being greenish-yellow. It is also claimed to be more 
rust-resisting than other European sorts. 

VARIETY TESTS 

To determine the comparative effects of manuring 
on different varieties of asparagus, and also their com- 
parative earliness, Prof. S. C. Mason and his assistant, 
W. E. Hall, of the Kansas lixperiment Station, have 
made some interesting and instructive experiments, 



CULTURAL VARIETIES 23 

the results of which are given in Bulletin 70, as fol- 
lows: 

' ' The seed of ten varieties of asparagus was planted. 
A good stand was secured, and the young plants were 
cultivated during the summer in the usual way. 
Early the following spring the entire patch was dug 
up and the roots heeled in. The same ground was 
then prepared for a permanent plantation, by plowing 
it deeply and marking it with furrows four feet apart. 
These furrows were made as deep as possible, but 
after the loose soil had run back into them the} 7 were 
on the bottom hardly six inches below the level of the 
ground. In these furrows the roots of the seedlings 
were planted (240 feet of row for each variety), 
making altogether a patch of 35.25 square rods, or a 
little more than one-fifth of an acre (.22 of an acre). 
The plants were .set about a foot apart in the row, and 
covered only an inch or two above the crown, leaving 
along the rows depressions some two inches deep, 
which were gradually filled up during the summer, by 
the many cultivations. During the winter the stalks 
were cleared off, but nothing was done with the patch 
in the spring more than to cut and note the earliest 
shoots, the first cutting of which was made April 13th. 
The patch was cultivated during summer as before, 
except that the size of the plants interfered somewhat 
— many of the plants growing six feet high and cor- 
respondingly broad. During the fall the north half 
of each variety was manured, at the rate of fifty loads 
per acre, with strong barn-yard manure, and in the 
spring the effect was noted. 

' ' The following table gives results as shown by the 



24 



ASPARAGUS 



records of ten cuttings made the spring of 1897, from 
April 20th to May 19th, inclusive; varieties averaged 
in order of vield : 



YAK 11 

.'In feet of row in each, one-half manured 
and one-half vmmanured 



YIELDS IN POUNDS 



I ')/ man 111 fit 'Tola! 



1 Hub 

:.' I »i maid's Hlmii a 

:i Vick's New Mammoth 

I Palmetto 

.", Mi iore s Cn iss-bred 

6 Conovei 's Colossal 

7 Hairs Philadelphia Mammoth 
S Columbian Mammoth White 
1 1! i(i s Eclipse 

in i .iant Purple Top 

Totals 



:;'.i| 



"Of the two heaviest yielding varieties, Hub and 
Donald's Klmira, the last named is the earliest, though 
Hub is also quite early. As nearly as can be judged 
from the notes, the ten varieties rank for earliness 
about as follows, though all kinds yielded something 
at the first cutting : 



Giant Purple Top. 

Barr's Philadelphia Mammoth. 

Donald's Elmira. 

Conover's Colossal. 

Vick's New Mammoth. 

The Hub. 

Dreer's Eclipse. 

Palmetto. 

Mi "ire's Cross-bred. 

Columbian Mammoth White. 



" Those included within a brace have little or no dif- 
ference of season. The numbers mark their rank 



CULTURAL VARIETIES 25 

with regard to yield, 1 being the highest. The 
ground occupied by this plantation is a rather low 
bottom-land, being built up of a clay silt from the 
former overflow of two creeks, mixed with vegetable 
mold. It is rather too compact for the best growth of 
asparagus, as it contains very little sand." 



T 



IV 

SEED GROWING 

he asparagus plant begins to produce seed when 
two years old. When fully developed the 
stalks are from five to six feet in hight, with 
numerous branches upon which are produced 
a profusion of bright scarlet berries, containing from 
three to six seeds each. It is not advisable, how- 
ever, to harvest seed from plants less than four years 
old. 

To save the seed the stalks are cut close to the 
ground as soon as the berries are ripe, which may be 
known by their changing color, from green to scarlet, 
and softening somewhat. The entire stalks are then 
cut off, tied in bundles, and hung up in a dry place 
safe from the attacks of birds, some kinds of which are 
very fond of this seed. After the berries are fully 
dried they are stripped off by hand, or thrashed upon 
a cloth or floor, and separated from the chaff. They 
are then soaked in water for a day or two to soften the 
skin and pulp of the berries, after which they are 
rubbed between the hands, or mashed with a wooden 
pounder, to break the outer shells. The separation of 
the pulp from the seed is accomplished by washing. 
When placed in water the seeds will settle with the 
pulp and the shells will readily pass away in pouring 
off the water. To clean the seeds thoroughly the 



SEED GROWING 27 

washing has to be repeated three or four times. It is 
then spread on boards or trays to dry in the sun 
and wind. After the first day it should be removed 
from the sun, but exposed to the air in a dry loft, 
spread thin for ten days or more. When thoroughly 
dried the seed is stored in linen or paper bags until 
needed. 

When cheapness of the seed is the main considera- 
tion such promiscuous harvesting may be permissible, 
but when only the best is desired careful selection and 
preparation becomes necessary. Even if the parent 
plants are of choice types, not all the seeds from them 
are equally good. The seed, for instance, which has 
been gathered from a stool which has flowered side by 
side with an inferior kind, and at the same time, may 
be worthless, because it has been fertilized badly. 
Then the last heads generally yield nothing but doubt- 
ful seed which seldom reproduces the proper type. The 
seeds which grow at the end of the shoots also, as well 
as those produced by the upper and lower extremities 
of the stem, have the same defect. 

In order to insure the production of the very best 
asparagus seed a sufficient number of pistillate or seed- 
bearing plants, which produce the strongest and best 
spears, should be selected and marked so that they may 
be distinguished the following spring when the shoots 
appear. These clumps should be close together and 
near some staminate or male plants which have to be 
marked likewise, as without their presence fertile seed 
can not be produced. The number of the male to the 
female plants should be about one to four or five. The 
following spring all the sprouts of the selected male 



28 ASPARAGUS 

plants are allowed to grow without cutting any. On 
each hill of the female plants the two strongest and 
earliest stalks are allowed to grow, cutting the later 
appearing spears with the others for market or home 
use. Thus these early stalks of both male and female 
plants bloom together before any other stalks, and 
the blooms on the female plants will be fertilized with 
the pollen of the selected male plants. This last is of 
prime importance, for on proper fertilization depends 
the purity of the seed as well as the vigor of the 
resultant plant. Not all seed of even a good plant 
properly fertilized should be used for reproduction, as 
of the seeds gathered from any plant some will be 
better than others. Only the largest, plumpest, and 
best matured seeds should be used, for by saving these 
the most nearly typical plants of the sort will be most 
certainly produced. The selection of the best seed 
from typical plants is as essential to success as are good 
soil, thorough cultivation, and heavy manuring. 

The best .seeds are produced from the lower part of 
the stalk, hence it is well to top the plant after the seed 
is well set, taking off about ten inches, and to remove 
the berries from the upper branches, that all the 
strength may go to the full development of the more 
desirable berries. If, after this has been done, there is 
more than sufficient seed for the purpose desired, a 
second discrimination can be made between the seed of 
plants which produce numerous 1 terries and those 
which are shy bearers, the latter being desirable, as 
this indicates a tendency in the plant to produce stalk 
rather than seed, and it is as a stalk producer that 
asparagus is valuable. 



SEED GROWING 29 

Harvesting, cleaning, and preserving the seed is, of 
course, to be done carefully; the separation of the 
heavy and the light seeds can be accomplished by 
means of water, while the larger can be selected from 
the resultant mass by the use of a properly meshed 
.sieve. 



V 

THE RAISING OF PLANTS 



"Asparagus can be propagated by division of 
the roots, l)iit this method gives so unsatis- 



factory results that it is rarely practiced. 

Raising the plants from seed is therefore the 
only method worth considering. The seed may be 
sown either in the fall or spring. But far more im- 
portant than the time for sowing is the quality of the 
seed. While asparagus seed retains its vitality for 
two or more years, it is not safe to use seed older than 
one year. Fresh seed may be recognized by its glossy 
black color and uniform smooth surface, while old seed 
has a smutty gray color and its surface is generally 
rough and wrinkled. Yet even with this as a guide 
it is not easy to distinguish bad from good seed, and 
still more difficult, if not impossible, is it to distinguish 
the seed of different varieties. It is therefore advisa- 
ble to procure seed only from dealers of undoubted 
reliability and pay a fair price for it rather than to 
accept poor seed as a gift. A uniformity of the indi- 
vidual plants in the asparagus bed or field is a matter 
of prime importance ; only large, full} 7 developed seeds 
should be used, screening out and rejecting all small 
and inferior ones. 

In northern latitudes spring sowing is preferable 
to fall sowing. The ground of the seed-bed should 
be well drained and fairly retentive of moisture. As 



THE RAISING OF PLAXTS 3 1 

soon as the soil admits of working it should be well 
pulverized and enriched with decomposed manure. On 
a small scale a spading-fork is the best implement for 
preparing soil for nursery rows of asparagus plants. 

Straight lines should be marked about fifteen inches 
apart and drills made about an inch deep when the 
sowing is done very early in the season, and one-half 
to one inch deeper when the sowing is done later. 
In these drills the seed should be dropped two or three 
inches apart. The covering may be made with a hoe, 
after which the soil should be well pressed down with 
the foot. As the seed is slow to germinate — in from 
four to six weeks, according to weather conditions 
— it is well to sow with it a few radish seeds, which 
will soon appear and mark the lines of the drills, so 
that cultivation may begin at once. Soaking the seed 
in luke-warm water for twenty-four hours before sow- 
ing will hasten its germination. 

The cultivation of the young plants consists in 
keeping the soil about them light, and free from grass 
and weeds. Most of this work can be done with a gar- 
den cultivator, or a hoe and rake or prong hoe, but 
some hand weeding is generally necessary in addition. 
Strict attention to this will save a year in time, for if 
the seed-bed has been neglected, it will take two years 
to get the plants as large as they should be in one year 
if they had been properly cared for. In consequence 
of this very frequent neglect of proper cultivation of 
the seed-bed, it is a common impression that the plants 
must be two years old before transplanting. One 
pound of seed will produce about 10,000 plants, but as 
many of these will have to be thinned out and poor 



32 ASPARAGUS 

onus rejected, it is not safe to count upon more than 
one-half of this number of good plants. The number 
of plants required for an acre varies according to the 
manner of planting. If planted in rows three feet 
apart and two feet in the rows, it will require 7,260 
plants per acre ; if planted three by four, 3,630 per acre. 

SOWING THE SEED WHERE THE PLANTS ARE TO 
REMAIN 

Growing asparagus without transplanting is gradu- 
ally finding many advocates among those who raise 
only the green article. It is not only a cheaper but 
in some respects a better method than the raising of 
the plants in a special seed-bed, from which they are 
transplanted after a year or two. " The plan is very 
simple," wrote Peter Henderson in American Agricul- 
turist, " and can be followed by any one having even a 
slight knowledge of fanning or gardening work. In the 
fall prepare the land by manuring, deep plowing, and 
harrowing, making it as level and smooth as possible for 
the reception of the seed. Strike out lines three feet 
apart and about two to three inches deep, in which 
sow the seed by hand or seed-drill, as is most con- 
venient, using from five to seven pounds of seed to 
each acre. Alter sowing, and before covering, tread 
down the seed in the rows with the feet evenly ; then 
draw the back of the rake lengthwise over the rows, 
after which roll the whole surface. 

" As soon as the land is dry and fit to work in the 
spring, the young plants of asparagus will start 
through the ground, sufficient to define the rows. At 
once begin to cultivate with hand or horse cultivator, 



THE RAISING OF PLANTS 33 

and stir the ground so as to destroy the embryo weeds, 
breaking the soil in the rows between the plants with 
the fingers or hand weeder for the same purpose. 
This must be repeated at intervals of two or three 
weeks during the summer, as the success of this plan 
is entirely dependent on keeping down the weeds, 
which, if allowed to grow, would soon smother the 
asparagus plants, that, for the first season of their 
growth, are weaker than most weeds. In two or three 
months after starting, the asparagus will have at- 
tained ten or twelve inches in hight, and it must now 
be thinned out, so that the plants stand nine inches 
apart in the rows. By fall they will be from two to 
three feet in hight and, if the directions for culture 
have been faithfully followed, strong and vigorous. 

"When the stems die down (but not before) cut 
them off close to the ground, and cover the lines for 
five or six inches on each side with two or three inches 
of rough manure. The following spring renew culti- 
vation, and keep down the weeds the second year ex- 
actly as was done during the first, and so on to the 
spring of the fourth year, when a crop will be produced 
that will well reward all the labor that has been 
expended. Sometimes, if the land is particularly suit- 
able, a marketable crop may be secured the third year, 
but as a rule it will be better to wait until the fourth 
year before cutting much, as this would weaken the 
plants. To compensate for the loss of a year's time 
in thus growing asparagus from .seed, cabbage, lettuce, 
onions, beets, spinach or similar crops that will be 
marketable before the asparagus has grown high 
enough to interfere with them, may be planted be- 



34 ASPARAGUS 

tween the rows of asparagus the first year of its 
growth with but little injury to it." 

GOOD CROPS TWO YEARS FROM SEED 

Iu answer to the many inquiries as to how asparagus 
can be grown to weigh two and three-fourths pounds 
per bunch of twenty-six stalks from plants two years 
old from seed, as exhibited at a recent American Insti- 
tute spring exhibition, George M. Hay, of Connecticut, 
writes in American Gardening as follows: 

' ' Select a piece of ground where the soil is light, 
but of a good depth, and plow thoroughly. About the 
i st of May mark off the rows three or four feet apart 
— for myself I prefer the latter distance as giving 
plenty of room for cultivation. Run a two-horse plow 
over the same furrow two or three times and you will 
have a depth of from fourteen to eighteen inches. 

"Trenches having been all made, we come to the 
most important part — namely, manuring. In order to 
give the young plants a good start after germination 
we have to use liberal quantities of well-rotted stable 
manure, and iu this the young plants make roots that 
in a short time are surprising. I use a one-horse load 
of manure to every seventy-five feet of drill, tramping 
it well down, and with a rake draw from each side of 
the trench soil to cover the manure to a depth of from 
two to three inches. The surface is raked level, and 
with the end of a rake or hoe a furrow one inch 
deep is drawn. 

"We are now ready for the seed, which should 
have been soaked in tepid water for at least twenty- 
four hours. This will insure the immediate starting 



THE) RAISING OF PLANTS 35 

of the seed when the soil is moist and has not had a 
chance to dry out. If unsoaked seed is used and we 
have a dry spell for two or three weeks, the seed will be 
almost useless by the time it receives moisture enough 
to start. 

' ' When the asparagus is two or three inches high 
thin out to one foot apart, being very careful not to 
disturb the plants left. A piece of a stick cut to the 
shape of a table-knife is an ideal tool for thinning out 
the young plants. It will be necessary to weed the 
rows by hand, while the plants are very small, for a 
distance of six inches on each side, as the cultivator, 
if run too close, will cover up the young plants. Keep 
the horse cultivator at work as often as possible to 
maintain moisture for the young roots. 

" By fall you will be surprised to learn how far the 
young roots have traveled and the crowns prepared for 
next year's crop. Cover the rows with stable manure 
for the winter, and in spring give a dressing of one 
pound of nitrate of soda to one hundred feet of drill, 
and you will be well repaid for the extra labor and 
outlay by being able to cut asparagus of extra size in 
two years from the time of sowing the seed, doing 
away with the transplanting of two-year-old roots, 
and then waiting two more years before the first crop 
can be cut." 

The principal objection which has been made against 
this system of not transplanting is that it does not 
admit of a careful choice of plants, as the plants must 
be kept in the places where sown, while in the trans- 
planting method we need use only the choicest plants; 
then, if two or three seeds come up close together, it 



36 ASPARAGUS 

is very difficult to thin them out., and if left they will 
produce an inferior growth. 

POT-GROWN ASPARAGUS PLANTS 

In the tests made at the Missouri Experiment 
Station, Prof. J. C. Whitten found that it is much 
better to plant the seeds in six inches of rich, sandy 
soil in the greenhouse or hotbed, in February or early 
March, than to wait two or three months for outdoor 
planting. Prof essor Whitten advises to " sow liberally, 
for seven-eighths of the seedlings should be discarded. 
When the seedlings are three inches high, select those 
which have the thickest, fleshiest, and most numerous 
stems, and pot them. They vary more than almost 
any other vegetable. Many that appear large and 
vigorous will have broad, flat, twisted, or corrugated 
stems. Discard them. Ik-ware, also, of those that 
put out leaves close to the soil. These will all make 
tough, stringy, undesirable plants. The best plants 
are those which are cylindrical, smooth, and free from 
ridges. They shoot up rapidly, and attain a bight of 
two inches before leaves are put out. They look much 
like smooth needles. This matter of selecting the best 
plants for potting, and subsequent planting out, is of 
the greatest importance in asparagus culture. 

"These young plants should first be put in small 
pots and moved into larger ones as soon as they are 
well rooted. They may need to be shifted twice before 
they are planted out-of-doors, which should be done 
when danger of frost is over. Started in this way 
they continue to grow from the time they are planted 
out and reach very large size the first season. In the 



THE RAISING OF PLANTS 



37 



case of nursery -grown plants, where seeds are sown 
directly out-of-doors, the young seedlings start very 
slowl} r , are very tender during their early growth, and 




FIG. 13 — ONE-YEAR-OLD POT-GROWN ASPARAGUS PLANT 



if the weather is unfavorable they hardly become well 
established before autumn. ' ' 

Fig. 13 shows a one-year-old plant started in Feb- 
ruary in the greenhouse and transplanted to the field 
the first of May. Plants grown in this way reach as 
good size in one year as the nursery-grown plants 
usually do in three years. 



T 



VI 

SELECTION OF PLANTS 

hat strong, healthy, one-year-old plants are in 
every way to be preferred to two or three 
year old ones has been demonstrated by many 
carefully conducted experiments, and is now 
universally recognized by intelligent and observant 
asparagus growers. The most noteworthy and accu- 
rate experiments in this line were made by the famous 
French asparagus specialist M. Godefroy-Lebceuf, who 
planted twelve stools of one, two, and three years old 
respectively in the same soil under the same condi- 
tions and at the same time. Calling those plantings 
Nos. i,2, and 3, the following are the results obtained: 

First Year. — No. 1. — All the stools came up before May 4th. 
and were well grown. 

No. 2. — Ten stools showed above ground before May 4th, 
one on the ioth, and one appeared to be dead. The asparagus 
heads were very fine — finer, indeed, than those of No. 1. 

No. 3. — Eight stools showed above ground before May 4th, 
one on the 12th, and three Rave no signs of life. The heads 
were very fine at first, but they became bent toward the end 
of the year (September 15th), and were much weaker than 
those of No. 2. 

Second Year. — No. 1. — Well-grown, regular, and strong 
heads, which measured on September 15th one inch in circum- 
f ere nee. 

No. 2. — Well-grown but irregular heads, somewhat weaker 
than those of No. 1. 

No. 3. — Only pretty well-grown heads, very irregular, 



SELECTION OF PLANTS 39 

some of the stools having as many as eight or ten, but all very 
weak. One stool died after growing two heads. 

Third Year. — No. I. — Magnificent growths, the heads 
measuring on April ioth from two inches to three and one- 
quarter inches in circumference. 

No. 2. — Growth passable only, but very irregular. Some 
of the stools were very small. The finest of them produced 
heads which from April Sth to ioth only measured two and 
one-half inches in circumference. 

No. 3. — Growth very poor and very irregular. Some of 
the stools continued to produce small heads not much thicker 
than a quill pen, the largest being from one and one-half inch 
to two inches in circumference. 

Fourth Year. — No. 1. — Growth very remarkable. The 
heads began to show on April 3d, 4th, 5th, 7th, and ioth. 
Some were from three and one-quarter inches to four inches in 
circumference, and measured four and three-quarter inches. 
Fi ft yofthe heads formedabundle which weighed seven pounds. 

No. 2. — Growth passable, but later than No. 1. The heads 
made their first appearance on April 6th, ioth, and nth. 
Many of them were very small ; fifty of them barely made 
half a bundle, and only weighed three and three-quarter 
pounds. 

No. 3. — Growth but poor, and somewhat late. The heads 
made their appearance on April 4th, 6th, gth, and nth ; one 
did not show till the 22d. Fifty heads barely formed half a 
bundle and only weighed two and one-half pounds. 

To sum up, it is clear that the plants of a year old in their 
fourth season — that is to say, after having been planted out 
for three years — gave a bundle weighing seven pounds, while 
those of two years old only gave three and three-quarter 
pounds, and those of three years old only two and one-half 
pounds ; in other words, taking round numbers, the planta- 
tion made with the one-year-old plants produced double the 
crop of the two-year-old plants and treble that of the three- 
year-old plants. The reader may easily draw his conclusions 
from the preceding facts. 



40 ASPARAGUS 

Equally important is a careful selection of the indi- 
vidual plants to be set out. A crown with four or five 
strong, well-developed buds is far better than one 
with a dozen or more of weak and sickly ones, as the 
latter will always produce thin and poor spearsof poor 
quality. It is therefore highly to be recommended to 
select only plants with not over six buds and discard 
all others. The roots should be strong and of uniform 
thickness, succulent and not too fibrous. Dry or 
withered roots have to be cut off, and plants with 
many bruised or otherwise damaged roots should be 
rejected entirely. The best roots are the cheapest. 

MALE AND FEMALE PLANTS 

It has long been observed that all of the asparagus 
plants in a bed do not produce seeds, owing to the 
fact that the male and female flowers in asparagus are 
nearly always borne on separate plants. Seed bearing 
is an exhaustive process, and, as might be supposed, 
those plants that have produced seed have less vigor 
than those that have not. In older to determine the 
difference in vigor between the seed bearing and non- 
seed bearing plants, Prof. William J. Green, horticul- 
turist of the ( >hio Experiment Station, staked off fifty 
of each in a plantation of half an acre. When the 
cuttings were made the shoots taken from male and 
female plants were kept separate, and the weight of 
each recorded in Bulletin No. 9, Volume III., of the 
Ohio Station, as follows : 

" The cuttings were made at regular intervals and 
in the ordinary manner, as for market purposes. The 
weight of shoots taken at each cutting is not given in 



SELECTION OF PEA NTS 



41 



the table, since the facts are quite as well shown by 
stating the aggregate weight for periods of ten days 
each. The division into periods is made for the pur- 
pose of showing comparative earliness. This could 
be shown in a more marked degree by taking the first 
and second cuttings alone, but they were too limited 
in quantity to admit of conclusions being drawn from 
them; hence they are included with the other cuttings 
in the same period. 

PRODUCT FROM FIFTY PLANTS EACH, MALE AND FEMALE 





Pi oduct from 

fifty male 

plants 


P> <n> inf from 

fifty female 

plants 




( > 11)1 C€S 

37 

104 
266 

203 


( lunces 
21 




68 




1(i4 




154 






Total for the season 


CIO 


407 



" This shows a gain of the male over the female 
plants of seventy-six per cent, for the first period, and 
a fraction less than fifty per cent, for the whole season. 
Reversing the standard of comparison, it will be seen 
that the female plants fall below the male forty-three 
per cent, for the first period, and a little more than 
thirty-three per cent, in the total. In no case did the 
female plants produce equally with the male. 

"If comparative earliness is determined by the date 
of first cutting alone, there is no difference between 
the male and female plants, since the first cutting was 
made on both at the same date; but taking quantity 
of product into consideration, which is the proper 



42 ASPARAGUS 

method, there is a decided difference, the gain of 
the male over the female plants being seventy-six, 
fifty-two, sixty-three, and thirty-one per cent, for the 
four periods respectively. The difference in yield 
between the two was greatest at first, and diminished 
toward the last, which practically amounts to the same 
thing as the male being earlier than the female. There 
is a still further difference between the two in quality 
of product, the shoots of the female plant being 
smaller and inferior to those of the male. 

' ' It is not safe to draw conclusions from such limited 
observations as these, further, at least, than to accept 
them as representing the truth approximately. Allow- 
ing a wide margin for possible error, there would still 
seem to be sufficient difference in productive capacity 
between the male and female plants to justify the 
selection of the former and rejection of the latter when 
a new plantation is to be started. If the figures given 
in the table are taken as a ba^is, the gain in the crop, 
if the male plants alone were used, would each season 
pay for all the plants rejected, and leave a handsome 
margin at the end of the term of years when an aspar- 
agus bed has served its period of usefulness. Male 
plants can be secured by division of old plants, or by 
selecting those that bear no seed, after they have 
attained the age of two years." 

In summing up the results of this experiment, 
Professor Green states that male asparagus plants are 
about fifty per cent, more productive than female 
plants, and the shoots being larger have a greater 
market value. 



VII 

THE SOIL AND ITS PREPARATION 



A|S asparagus in its wild state is usually found 
growing in light and sandy soils along or near 
jj^ff^ the seashore, it has long been supposed that it 
could not be cultivated in other localities and 
soils. While it is true that asparagus succeeds best in 
a sandy, rich, and friable loam, naturally underdrained 
and yet not too dry, there is not another vegetable 
which accommodates itself more readily to as varying 
soils and conditions. There is hardly a State in 
the United States in which at present asparagus is not 
grown more or less extensively and profitably, and the 
most famous asparagus districts of France and Ger- 
many are situated at gieat distances from the seashore. 
The question of what soil to use is, as a rule, 
already settled; we have to use the soil we have. Any 
good garden soil is suitable for asparagus, and if it is 
not in the most favorable condition, under existing 
circumstances, it can easily be made so. The soil 
should be free from roots, stones, or any material that 
will not readily disintegrate, or that will interfere with 
the growth of the spears, and with the knife in cut- 
ting. Fruit or other trees, or high shrubs, must not 
be allowed in the asparagus bed, because of the shade 
they throw over the beds, and because their roots 
make heavy drafts upon the soil. Nor should high 
trees, hedges, hills, or buildings be so near as to shade 



44 A SPAR ACTS 

the beds, because all the sunshine obtainable is needed 
to bring the spears quickly to the surface. Whenever 
practicable the asparagus bed should be protected from 
cold winds, and so slope that the full benefit of the 
sunshine will be obtained during the whole day. 
Brinckmeier, in his " Braunschweiger Spargelbuch," 
gives the following three inks for guidance in select- 
ing a location for asparagus beds : 

" i . One should choose, in reference to ground char- 
acteristics, open, free-lying land, protected to the north 
and east [which, for American conditions, should be 
north and west], of gradual slope, free from trees or 
shrubbery. 

" 2. The field should be exposed to the rays of the 
sun all day long; therefore, a southern exposure is 
desirable, or, if that is not obtainable, a southwesterly 
or southeasterly slope, because either east, west, or 
north exposure will cause shade during a greater or 
less portion of the day. 

"3. Standing, stagnant ground water, which can- 
not lie drawn off by drainage, is to be avoided, the 
requirements of the plants indicating a somewhat damp 
subsoil, but not too high ground water." 

For commercial purposes on a large scale, and when 
the trucker has the choice of location, a well-drained, 
light, deep, sandy loam, with a light clay subsoil, is to 
be preferred to any other. Heavy clay soil, or land 
with a hard-pan subsoil, or, in fact, any soil that is 
cold and wet, is totally unfit for profitable asparagus 
growing, unless it is thoroughly underdrained and 
made lighter by a plentiful addition of sand and muck. 

Freedom from weeds is very desirable, even more 



THE SOIL AND ITS PREPARATION 45 

so than great fertility, for the latter can be produced 
by heavy manuring, which the future cultivation will 
require; and to the end that weeds may be few, it is 
well that for a year or two previous to planting the 
land should have been occupied by some hoed crop, 
such as potatoes, beets, cabbage, etc. Land on which 
corn has been growing for two or three years is in 
excellent condition for an asparagus field, provided it 
has been heavily manured one year previous to the 
planting of the roots. 

PREPARATION OF THE GROUND 

Asparagus differs from most other vegetables in 
that it is a perennial, and when once planted properly, 
in suitable soil, it will continue to produce an annual 
crop for a generation if not for an indefinite period, 
while if the work is done carelessly and without con- 
sideration for the plant's requirements the plantation 
will never prove satisfactory and will run out entirely 
in the course of a few years. The establishing of an 
asparagus bed is naturally more expensive than the 
planting and raising of annual vegetables. In addition 
to this, the plants have to be taken care of for three 
years before a crop can be harvested. On the other 
hand, an asparagus bed is an investment for a lifetime, 
and the dividends derived from it increase in proportion 
to the care and thoroughness bestowed upon the prep- 
aration of the land. 

It is at once apparent, then, that nothing should be 
neglected to bring the soil into the best possible con- 
dition before planting. This truth was fully recog- 
nized by the gardeners of former years who practiced 



46 ASPARAGUS 

most extraordinary methods in order to bring the land 
into the most favorable condition for asparagus. Even 
now in some European countries, where labor is cheap, 
the entire ground is trenched to a depth of three or 
four feet, turning in at the same time all the available 
manure, seaweed, and other fertilizing material. 

A famous old-time asparagus bed in England was 
made in this manner : "The land was trenched three 
feet deep in trenches three feet wide and cast up 
into rough ridges, after a crop of summer peas. All 
decaying vegetation in the rubbish yards and corners 
was at the same time well sorted and turned up. Early 
in autumn also were added some old mushroom, melon, 
and cucumber bed material, a lot of manure from 
piggeries, cow houses, and stables, a quantity of road- 
grit and sand, a quantity of ditch and drain parings, 
turfy loam and sods, quite three feet thick. These 
were all turned over four times and well incorporated 
together, between Michaelmas and Dady Day, as one 
would a dungheap, the whole being left in large 
ridges exposed to the frost. By April this compost 
was in a kindly state; it was, therefore, laid down and 
planted with good, clean one-year-old asparagus plants, 
which certainly grew in a most extraordinary way." 

Another elaborate way of making an asparagus bed, 
formerly practiced in France, is described by Dr. 
Maccullogh as follows : "A pit the size of the intended 
plantation is dug four feet in depth, and the mold 
taken from it must be sifted, taking care to reject all 
stones, even as low in size as a filbert nut. The best 
part of the mold must then be laid aside before making 
up the beds. The materials of the bed are then to be 



THE SOIL AND ITS PREPARATION 47 

laid in the following proportions and order: Six inches 
of common dunghill manure, eight inches of turf, six 
inches of dung as before, six inches of sifted earth, 
eight inches of turf, six inches of very rotten dung, 
eight inches of the best of earth. The last layer of 
earth must then be well mixed with the last of dung. 
The compartment must now be divided into beds five 
feet wide by paths constructed of turf two feet in 
breadth and one foot in thickness." 

A bed prepared in this manner, and planted and 
cultivated with as much painstaking care, will no doubt 
produce asparagus of unsurpassed quality, and may 
last forever. Yet the use of modern implements and a 
better knowledge of the nature and requirements of the 
plant have demonstrated that first-class asparagus can 
be produced with far less expense and labor. While a 
deep and loose soil produces earlier and better crops 
than a heavy and shallow one, indiscriminate deepen- 
ing of the soil by trenching or other means is not 
always desirable, even where the cost does not come 
into consideration. When the subsoil is very light and 
poor and deficient in humus, the placing of the better 
surface soil below and the infertile lower strata above, 
trenching would be a positive detriment. The same 
would be the case where the subsoil consists of heavy 
impervious clay. 

In the fall preceding planting the land should be 
plowed deeply and left in the rough state during the 
winter. Subsoiling has often been recommended, yet 
practical growers but rarely make use of the subsoil 
plow in the preparation of asparagus plantations, 
although the value of subsoiling where the subsoil is 



48 ASPARAGUS 

heavy can not be doubted. Where stable or barnyard 
manure can be had cheaply, and the soil is heavy, a 
liberal coat spread broadcast oxer the surface and left 
to the action of the weather during winter will 
ameliorate the ground considerably. In most cases, 
however, the same object may be obtained by applying 
the manure in spring. Joseph Harris mentions a case 
in which a bed was plowed and subsoiled in the fall 
and the soil filled with manure, while another bed 
near by was planted without manure, or extra prepara- 
tion of any kind, relying entirely on artificial fertilizers 
after planting, and the latter was by far the better bed. 
As early in spring as the ground is in suitable condi- 
tion to be worked it has to be plowed and harrowed 
and brought into as perfect condition as possible. 



VIII 

PLANTING 



Throughout the Middle and Northern States, 
__ spring, as soon as the soil can be worked to 
JlUjjj) good advantage, is decidedly the most favor- 
able time for planting asparagus. If it is 
not practicable to plant thus early, the work may some- 
times be delayed up to the middle of June. In plant- 
ing thus late, however, preparation has to be made 
for watering the plants in case of drouth, else failure 
be inevitable. It is also necessary to do the work as 
expeditiously as possible, so as not to expose the roots 
to the drying influences of the sun and wind. Fall 
planting is advisable only in climates where there is 
no danger of winter-killing of the roots. 

After the ground has been plowed and harrowed, 
or spaded and raked over, and brought into as mellow 
a condition as possible, the rows for planting are to be 
laid out. It is usually recommended to have the rows 
run north and south, so as to readily admit the sun- 
light. When this is not practicable, however, it need 
not deter any one from making an asparagus bed, as 
it is more important to have the rows run with the 
slope of the land than in any particular direction 
of the compass, in order to provide ready surface 
drainage. 



50 ASPARAGUS 

DISTANCE TO PLANT 

As to the best distance between the rows and the 
plants in the rows there is a wide difference of opinion, 
more so than with almost any other cultivated plant. 
No unvarying rule can be laid down on this point, as 
it depends largely upon the mechanical condition, 
depth, and fertility of the soil. In a rich, moderately 
heavy soil, the roots may be planted closer than in a 
poor, light soil. The tendency of the present day is 
for giving the plants considerably more room than 
what formerly was thought to be ample. Intelligent 
observers could not fail to notice that crowded aspara- 
gus beds produce later and smaller crops, and of 
inferior size and quality ; that they do not last as long; 
and that they are more liable to attacks from insects 
and fungi than when more room is given to the plants. 

Gardeners of but a few decades ago had no idea of 
the possibility of raising a profitable crop of asparagus 
planted four or five feet apart, and would have looked 
with derision upon any one advocating so wild a 
scheme. The remains of run out, old-time asparagus 
beds are still in evidence in many old farm gardens. 
The rows in these were originally one foot apart and 
the plants in the rows even closer than this, and per- 
haps after every third or fourth row there was a path 
two feet wide. Of course, in such a bed, after a few 
years, the entire ground became a solid mass of roots, 
and the stalks became smaller and tougher from year 
to year. 

In most asparagus sections special customs prevail, 
and even in these different growers have their indi- 



PLANTING 



51 



vidual preferences ; but all agree that asparagus should 
never be planted closer than two feet in rows three 
feet apart. For the home garden there is no better 
plan than to plant but a single row, with the plants 




FIG. 14 — HORIZONTAL DEVELOPMENT OF A FOUR-YEAR-OLD 
ASPARAGUS ROOT 



two or three feet apart, along the edge or border of 
the ground, but not nearer than four or five feet to 
other plants, and in case of grape-vines even more 
room should be given. Here they require but little 
care, and the plants have an unlimited space for the 



52 ASPARAGIS 

extension of their roots in search of moisture and food. 
Asparagus needs considerable water, and an acre of 
land will hold so much water and no more. The more 
plants there are on an acre the less water there will be 
for each plant, and what is true of water is also true 
of plant food. 

In field culture the distance adopted by asparagus 
growers varies from 3 x 3 feet (4,840 plants per acre); 
3x4 feet (3,640 plants per acre) ; 4x4 feet (2,722 
plants per acre): 4x5 feet (2,178 plants per acre); 
5x6 feet (1,452 plants per acre); 6x6 feet (1,210 
plants per acre), and even more. If the idea is to 
have the plants so far apart that their roots can not 
interlace, twenty feet each way would not lie too ex- 
travagant a distance, under favorable conditions, as 
will readily become apparent by a glance at Fig. 14. 
This illustration i> an exact reproduction of the root 
system of an asparagus plant four years from the 
seed. The roots spread out upon a level floor meas- 
ured thirteen feet from tip to tip, the single roots 
averaging the thickness of a lead pencil. This root 
grew in Madison County, 111., and was washed out of 
the ground — without having any of its roots torn — by 
tlie unusually heavy spring rains which caused the Piasa 
River to overflow its banks and sent a current rushing 
through the asparagus field in which it grew. If the 
plant had remained in its position a few years longer 
its roots would probably have extended ten feet in each 
direction. 

From this it does not follow, however, that aspara- 
gus should he planted twenty or even ten feet apart to 
produce the largest returns, but it plainly shows why 



PLANTING 53 

the roots should not be planted as closely together as 
was customary in former years; and it obviously demon- 
strates that when land is cheap and manure and labor 
high, asparagus can not be hurt by giving it plenty of 
room. It should also be considered that earliness, 
size, and quality make a great difference with the price 
and profits when early and large shoots are in demand. 
It might be possible to get double the number of shoots 
per acre from thick than from thin planting, but they 
might be so small and spindling as not to be worth the 
labor and expense of cutting and marketing. 

DEPTH OF PLANTING 

Contrary to the all but universal belief, asparagus 
is not a deep-rooted plant. In the wild state its most 
frequent habitat is on the fertile marshes of the shore- 
line in Europe, on ground but a few inches above the 
tidewater which permeates the sandy subsoil. As the 
roots can not live in water, they naturally grow to long 
distances parallel with the surface and retain this habit 
under cultivation. The tendency of growth in the 
asparagus roots in this direction is obviously demon- 
strated in Fig. 14. 

The proper depth of planting asparagus roots varies 
somewhat, according to the character of the soil, the 
method of cultivation, and the kind of spears desired, 
whether white or green. As the new crowns rise 
somewhat above the old ones annually, it seems but 
rational that the plants should have sufficient room for 
the new growths before their crowns become even with 
the surface of the land. When the crown once comes 
near the level of the soil it is impossible to give proper 



54 ASPARAGUS 

cultivation, unless the entire bed be raised by adding 
soil to the whole surface. 

While it is true that the deeper the crowns are 
planted the later they will start in the spring, this is 
of account only during the first few years. Besides, 
the factor of earliness is not of nearly as much impor- 
tance now as it was before northern markets were 
so bountifully supplied with the southern grown crops 
several months before the opening of the northern 
season. Shallow-planted asparagus sprouts earlier, 
but soon exhausts itself, sending up spindling, tough 
shoots, while the deeper-planted crowns produce large 
and succulent sprouts throughout the season. When 
green asparagus is desired, and there is no danger of 
the beetles eating the sprouts before they are fit for 
use, a depth of two or three inches is sufficient, but 
for white or blanched asparagus a depth of from eight 
to ten inches is necessary. 

MANNER OF PLANTING 

As in other details of asparagus culture, the 
methods of planting have undergone very material 
changes. The formerly usual practice of digging 
deep trenches was not well founded — in the light of 
our present experience and knowledge — and could be 
useful only for drainage. How little regard was paid 
to the nature and requirements of the plant may read- 
ily lie perceived by reading the following directions for 
making an asparagus bed, but little over half a century 
ago, in Bridgeman's " Young Gardeners' Assistant" : 

" The ground for the asparagus bed should have a 
large supply of well-rotted dung, three or four inches 



PLANTING 55 

thick, and then be regularly trenched two spades deep, 
and the dung buried equally in each trench twelve or 
fifteen inches below the surface. When this trench- 
ing is done, lay two or three inches of thoroughly 
rotted manure over the whole surface, and dig the 
ground over again eight or ten inches deep, mixing 
this top-dressing, and incorporating it well with the 
earth. 

' ' In family gardens it is customary to divide the 
ground thus prepared into beds, allowing four feet for 
every four rows of plants, with alleys two feet and a 
half wide between each bed. Strain your line along 
the bed six inches from the edge ; then with a spade 
cut out a small trench or drill close to the line, about 
six inches deep, making that side next to the line nearly 
upright ; when one trench is opened, plant that before 
you open another, placing the plants upright ten or 
twelve inches distance in the row, and let every row 
be twelve inches apart. 

" The plants must not be placed flat in the bottom 
of the trench, but nearly upright against the back of 
it, and so that the crown of the plants must also stand 
upright, and two or three inches below the surface of 
the ground, spreading their roots somewhat regularly 
against the back of the trench, and at the same time 
drawing a little earth up against them with the 
hand as you place them, just to fix the plants in their 
due position until the row is planted ; when one row 
is thus placed, with a rake or hoe draw the earth into 
the trench over the plants, and then proceed to open 
another drill or trench, as before directed, and fill and 
cover it in the same manner, and so on until the whole 



56 ASPARAGUS 

is planted ; then let the surface of the beds be raked 
smooth and clear from stones, etc. 

' ' Some gardeners, with a view to having extra large 
heads, place their plants sixteen inches apart in the 
rows instead of twelve, and by planting them in the 
quincunx manner — that is, by commencing the second 
row eight inches from the end of the first and the 
fourth even with the second — the plants will form 
rhomboidal squares instead of rectangular ones, and 
every plant will thus have room to expand its roots and 
leaves luxuriantly." 

In diametrical contradistinction, and as an example 
of the very plainest and simplest of modern methods, 
Joseph Harris wrote: " If you are going to plant a 
small bed in the garden, stretch a line not less than 
four feet from any other plant, and with a hoe make 
holes along the line, eighteen inches or three feet 
apart, four inches deep, and large enough to hold the 
plants when the roots are spread out horizontally. 
Do not make deep holes straight down in the ground 
and stick the roots in as you would a cabbage, but 
spread out the roots. After the roots are set out cover 
them with tine soil, and that is all there is to it. Then 
move the line three feet from the first row and repeat 
the planting until the bed is finished. In the field 
make the rows witli a common corn-marker, three feet 
apart each way, and set out a plant where the rows 
cross. It is but little more work to plant an acre of 
asparagus than an acre of potatoes." 

Between these extreme methods many different 
directions for planting asparagus have been given and 
practiced. Modern methods have not only greatly 



PLANTING 57 

simplified the planting, but have also materially 
reduced the expense, increased the crop, and improved 
the quality of the product. 

After the ground has been properly prepared, it is 
marked off in parallel rows from three to five or more 
feet apart, according to the preferences of the grower. 
The easiest way to open these trenches is by plowing a 
furrow each way, and, if necessary, going over the 
ground a sufficient number of times to make the 




FIG. 15 — TRENCHES READY FOR PLANTING 

furrows from eight to ten inches deep. After this the 
loose soil is thrown out with a shovel or a wide hoe, so 
as to leave the trenches at a uniform depth of ten to 
twelve inches and of the saint- width at the bottom, as 
seen in Fig. 15. By rigging a piece of board on the 
mold-board of the plow more soil is thrown out, so that 
usually it will not be necessary to go over the ground 
oftener than twice. The Messrs. Hudson 6c Son, of 
Long Island, have devised for their own use a 
"trencher" (Fig. 16), which with a good team opens 
the trench to the desired depth in one operation and 
at a great saving of labor. 



58 ASPARAGUS 

If the entire ground has been heavily fertilized, 
plowing manure in the trenches will not be necessary, 
yet many experienced asparagus growers think that 
it pays to scatter some fertilizing material into the 
trenches before planting. A favorite plan with Long 
Island growers is to mix half a ton of ground bone, or 
fish scrap, with one hundred pounds of nitrate of soda 
per acre, and thoroughly incorporate this mixture with 




FIG. l6 — HUDSON'S TKEN'CHER 

the soil to a depth of three inches before setting the 
plants. Others prefer thoroughly decomposed manure 
spread over the bottom of the furrow, to a depth of 
about three inches, before setting the plants. Others 
prefer thoroughly decomposed manure spread over the 
bottom of the furrow, to a depth of about three inches, 
and covering it with two inches of fine soil. If the 
roots are to be planted four or more feet apart it will 
be sufficient to throw a shovelful of manure where the 
roots are to be placed. This is then spread out so as to 



PLANTING 59 

make a layer of about three inches, which is then 
covered with soil. 

PLACING THE ROOTS 
The proper planting of the roots is the most critical 
point in asparagus culture, as upon the manner in 
which this is performed — more than upon other detail — 
depends the success, yield, duration, and profit of the 
plantation. Almost any other neglect can be remedied 




FIG. 17 — ASPARAGUS ROOT IN PROPER POSITION FOR COVERING 

by after-treatment, but careless and faulty planting, 
never. Whatever care and personal attention the 
grower may give to this work will be repaid many fold 
in future returns. 

As stated before, only strong, healthy one-year-old 
plants with three or four strong buds should be used, 
so as to insure an even growth over the entire field, 
and at every stage of the work great care must be taken 
not to expose the roots to the drying influences of sun 
and winds. When everything is in readiness for plant- 
ing, the roots are placed in the trench, the crown in the 



6o 



ASPARAGUS 



center and the rootlets spread out evenly and horizon- 
tally, like the spokes of a wheel, and at once covered 
with three inches of fine, mellow soil, which is pressed 
around them. If the ground is dry at planting-time it 
should be pressed down quite firmly about the roots, so 
as to prevent their drying out, and to hasten their 
growth. 

To still more insure sucee>s it is an excellent plan 
to draw up little hills of soil in the bottom of the 




FIG. IS — CROSS-SECTION OF ASPARAGUS BED AFTER PI. ANTING 



trench over which to place the roots with the crowns 
resting on the to]), thus raising the crowns a few 
inches above the extremities of the roots and providing 
for them a position similar to what they stood in before 
transplanting, as seen in Fig. 17. 

The subsequent covering of the roots can usually 
be done with a one-horse plow, from which the mold- 
board has been removed, passing down the sides of the 
row. This leaves the plants in a depression, the soil 
thrown out in opening the rows forming a ridge on 
each, side, as shown in Fig. 18. This depression will 
gradually become filled during the process of cultiva- 
tion the succeeding summer. 



IX 

CULTIVATION 



A™* S generally understood, the chief object of 
cultivation is to kill weeds. This is an erro- 
jjjjj^ neous idea, however, as the appearance of 
weeds serves simply as Nature's reminder of 
the necessity of immediate cultivation. On ground 
cultivated as thoroughly as it should be for the best 
development of the crop there will rarely be any 
weeds to kill, as their germs have been destroyed by 
the process of cultivation before they could make their 
appearauce above the ground. 

CARE DURING THE FIRST YEAR 

The cultural work in the asparagus bed during 
the first year consists in loosening the soil at frequent 
intervals, and especially as soon after rain as the 
ground becomes dry enough for cultivation. Frequent 
and thorough cultivation is necessary not only to keep 
down the weeds, but also to prevent the formation of 
a crust on the soil after rain, and to provide a mulch 
of loose earth for the retention of moisture. In field 
culture the work is best done with a one-horse cultiva- 
tor or a wheel-hoe, and on a small scale with a 
scuffle-hoe and a rake. As the sprouts grow up 
small quantities of fine soil should be drawn into the 



62 ASPARAGUS 

trenches from time to time, but during the early part 
of the season great care must be exercised not to 
cover the crowns too deeply. 

Some growers advise to work the soil away instead 
of toward the plants, considering the four inches of 
soil with which the roots are covered at planting suf- 
ficient for the first year. While this may be true in a 
wet or moderately moist summer, in a season of drouth 
the additional mulch of mellow soil can not but be 
beneficial to the young and tender plants. Especial 
care is ret pi i red when working around the young 
sprouts, so as not to cover, break, or in any way 
injure any of them. 

In the garden bed it pays to stake the canes when 
they are but a foot high, so as to prevent the wind 
from disturbing the stools in the soil by swaying the 
shoots backward and forward. Careful gardeners 
insert stakes for this purpose at the time of planting, 
before the roots are covered with soil, so as to guard 
against the danger of injuring any of them. The best 
material for this tying is raffia, or Cuban bast. In 
field culture staking is usually not practicable, partly 
on account of the cost, and also because where there 
are many plants growing close together they furnish 
some mutual protection to one another. The same 
end may also be accomplished — partly, at least — by 
throwing up a furrow on each side of the rows of 
plants. Precautions of this kind are important in 
localities exposed to high winds, as their neglect may 
often cause greater loss than it would have cost to 
provide proper protection. 

Another important work in the asparagus bed 



CULTIVATION 63 

during the first year is to keep close and constant 
watch over the asparagus beetle, and at its first 
appearance to apply the remedies recommended in the 
chapter on injurious insects. Plants deprived of their 
foliage at this early stage of their life have but a poor 
chance to recover from the loss. 

If it is found that some of the plants have not 
started by the middle of June, it is best to replace 
them with growing plants of the same age, which 
should have been kept in a reserve bed for this pur- 
pose. If this replanting is done carefully, so as not 
to mutilate any of the roots, and on a cloudy day, it 
is best not to cut back the tops very severely. Unless 
a copious rain sets in soon after planting, the roots 
have to be heavily watered, after which they will 
keep on growing at once without suffering any set- 
back. 

The formerly all but universal practice was to cover 
the roots with manure after the stalks had been 
removed in the fall for fear of frost injuring or kill- 
ing the roots. In sections where winters are very 
severe this may still be desirable, as may be seen from 
the statement of so keen an observer as Professor J. C. 
Whitten, of the Missouri Experiment Station : " Most 
writers advise applying dressing of old fine manure 
during the growing season when the plants can use it. 
In our soil better results are obtained by applying it in 
winter. It prevents the soil from running together 
and hardening, and also prevents the sprouts from 
coming through, as they otherwise often do, too early 
in spring, and becoming weakened by subsequent 
severe freezing." 



64 ASPARAGUS 

As the reverse of this plan, M. Godefroy Tebceuf, 
the famous French authority, recommends " to clear 
out of the trenches the soil which has fallen into them 
from the sides of the mounds, and also remove from 
above the stools a portion of that with which they 
were covered at the time they were planted — say, to a 
depth of one and one-half inches — so that the action of 
the frost may open the soil and that the rain may pene- 
trate and improve it ; also that during the first fine 
days of spring the sun may warm the surface of the 
soil and penetrate as far as the stools. There is no 
fear that the action of the frost should hurt the plants. 
Asparagus will never freeze as long as the stool is 
covered with a layer of soil one and one-half to one 
and three- fourth inches in depth." 

If the rows are not less than four feet apart a crop 
of some other vegetables may be raised between them. 
Beans, dwarf peas, lettuce, beets, or any kinds which 
do not spread much, are suitable for the purpose. 
These by-products will help considerably toward pay- 
ing the cost of cultivating the main crop, besides having 
a tendency to keep the --oil cool and moist, a condition 
of 110 little importance to the asparagus. 

CARE DURING THE SECOND VEAR 

The treatment of the asparagus plantation during 
the second year does not differ materially from that of 
the first season after planting. The ground has to be 
stirred frequently and kept scrupulously clean, and a 
sharp lookout must be kept for the advent of injurious 
insects. As soon as berries appear 011 the tops they 
should be stripped off and destroyed, as the ripening 



CULTIVATION 65 

seed absorbs a large share of the nourishment which 
ought to go to the development and strengthening of 
the crowns which are to produce the following year's 
crop. 

Even with the best of care, some plants will die out 
from time to time, although the more thoroughly the 
ground has been prepared at the time of planting, and 
the better the quality of the roots planted, the fewer 
failures of this kind will occur. These blank spaces 
are not only constant eyesores to the methodical gar- 
dener, but in the course of several years the aggregate 
shortage of crops will be considerable, while the amount 
of labor and fertilizer will be the same as in a fully 
stocked plantation. Therefore, such vacancies should 
be filled in the spring, not only of the second year, but 
whenever they occur in future seasons. 

The best way to replant these dead or dying roots 
is to go over the rows each fall, before the ground 
freezes, and drive a stake wherever there is a plant 
missing, as in the spring, before the plants have started, 
it would be difficult, if not impossible, to indicate the 
blank spaces. For replanting in the second year good 
strong two-year-old roots should be used. For the 
third and future years it is best to raise and keep a 
supply of a sufficient number of reserve plants for this 
special purpose in a similar manner as is done for 
forcing. As early in spring as the season permits 
these clumps should be carefully lifted and transferred 
to the permanent plantation. For three-year and 
older beds good strong three-year-old roots should be 
used, as younger ones would have but a poor chance 
between two older and well-established clumps. 



66 ASPARAGUS 

CARE DURING THE THIRD AND FUTURE YEARS 

The third year cutting may begin in a moderate 
way, but too much should not be attempted./ If all 
the conditions of growth have been favorable half a 
crop may be cut without injuring the roots, but under 
no circumstances should cutting in the third year be 
continued for more than three weeks. The general 
care of the bed during the third year is similar to that 
of the second, with the exception that the soil is 
worked more toward the rows, ridging them slightly. 

In the spring of the third and each succeeding 
year, as soon as the ground can be worked it should 
be plowed between the rows, turning the soil toward 
and over the crowns, leaving a dead furrow between 
the rows, as seen in Fig. 19. If bleached asparagus 
is desired, these ridges over the rows should be twelve 
inches higher than the bottom of the dead furrows 
between the rows, and when the soil is very light and 
sandy a bight of fifteen inches is preferable. For 
green asparagus the ridges are left lower, and the 
shoots are allowed to grow several inches above the 
ground before cutting, provided the asparagus beetle 
does not appropriate them sooner. 

After the furrows are plowed out between the 
rows a home-made ridger is used to smooth the ridges 
and complete the work. This is formed of two heavy 
oak boards shod with tire iron, sloping upward and 
backward, attached to a pair of cultivator wheels. 
This requires a good team, one horse walking on 
either side of the row. On the light soils of Fong 
Island this implement works to perfection, but on stiff 




►J 


f_J 


tt 


c/3 


W 








S 


2 


P4 


W 



> : 



68 ASPARAGUS 

lands a two-horse disk-wheel cultivator, with two disks 
on each side, going astride of each row and throwing 
up fresh soil upon the ridge, proves more effective. 
The same implements are used for renewing the ridges 
during the cutting season, which will be required 
about once a week, as the rains beat them down and 
the sun bakes a crust upon the top. 

Immediately after the cutting season is over the 
ridges are leveled, by plowing a furrow from each side 
of the center (Fig. 20), after which the land is har- 
rowed crosswise until the surface is level and smooth. 
As long as practical, surface cultivation should be 
given, especially after rains, but usually at this time 
the plants make such rapid and vigorous growth that 
there will be little time for the work. Their tops and 
branches soon fdl the entire space and quickly shade 
the ground so densely as to keep down weed growth. 
Of course, whatever tall weeds may spring up here 
and there have to be pulled out by hand. 

FALL TREATMENT 

The fall clearing of the plantation is an important 
part of asparagus culture. As soon as the berries are 
turning red — but not before — the stalks should be cut 
off even with the ground. If left longer the berries 
will drop off, their seeds will soon become embedded 
in the ground and fill the soil with seedling asparagus 
plants, which are about the most obstinate weed in the 
asparagus bed. If cut sooner they are not sufficiently 
matured, and the roots are deprived of their nourish- 
ment. All the brush should be removed at once to an 
open field and burned, so as not to provide lodging- 



1 — _ 

• ; 



I C Jrn'- 







70 ASP A R ACTS 

places for injurious insects and fungi. Some recom- 
mend leaving the seedless plants as a mulch during 
the winter, but the possible benefit of this is so insig- 
nificant that it is not worth while to leave them for a 
second cleaning in spring, when time is far more 
valuable. 

RENOVATING OLD ASPARAGUS BEDS 

The principal causes of asparagus beds running out 
are that in the first place ten plants are set out in a 
space where only one could thrive; then that the ground 
is not rich enough and had no proper cultivation; and 
last, but not least, that the cutting of the stalks has 
been carried to excess. What to do with the old bed 
is sometimes a perplexing question, especially when a 
place changes hands and the new proprietor has more 
progressive ideas than the former one had. 

L,et the old bed stay, and set out a new one accord- 
ing to rational methods. Some years ago the writer 
came into possession of an asparagus bed which was 
known to be forty years old, and may have been much 
older. It was a solid mass of roots without any dis- 
tinguishable rows. The spears produced were so small 
and tough that the first impulse was to dig up the 
roots. But as this proved to be a more formidable 
task than was anticipated, another plan was pursued. 
In autumn the bed was thickly covered with fine yard 
manure. The following spring the bed was marked 
out into strips of two feet in width. When the 
sprouts appeared those in every alternate strip were 
cut clean off during the entire summer, and the others 
allowed to grow. In the autumn of the year another 



CULTIVATION 7 1 

heavy application of manure was given to the entire 
bed. The following year but few shoots appeared in 
the strips which had been cut all through the summer. 
These were treated the same as before, and in the third 
year not a sprout appeared in the alleys. The stalks 
left for use improved greatly during the first year and 
the third year were of good serviceable size and quality, 
so that even after the new bed, which had been planted 
at the time this experiment was commenced, came into 
bearing, the old one was retained for several years 
longer. Probably if the vacant strips had been made 
three or four feet wide the result would have been 
still better. This experience suggests the idea that 
the easiest and least expensive way of exterminating 
an old asparagus bed is to persistently mow down 
all the shoots for a season or two. 



X 

FERTILIZERS AND FERTILIZING 

SPARAGUS is a gross feeder. There is hardly 
another plant in cultivation upon the vitality 
of which so great a demand is made. The 
cutting of all its sprouts, or shoots, as soon as 
they appear above the ground, for several weeks, is 
an abnormal and enormous tax upon the plant, which 
is thus forced to extra exertion in order to reproduce 
itself and perpetuate its kind. Therefore, it should 
have the most tender care, and an abundance of nonr- 
ishing and readily available food. The earliness, ten- 
derness, size, and commercial value of the product 
depends principally on the rapidity of its growth, and, 
as this is materially promoted by the richness of the 
soil, it is evident that the plants should receive all the 
food they can assimilate during the growing season. 

There is a wide difference of opinion among grow- 
ers as to which i^ the best kind of manure to use. 
Whatever the individual preferences may be, there is 
this satisfaction to know that no kind of plant food 
can come amiss on the asparagus tied, although the 
use of some kinds and combinations may be more 
economical than others. Formerly animal manures 
only were thought to be of any use for asparagus, and 
there are still some growers who cling to this opinion. 
In recent years, however, there has been a decided 
reaction in this regard in some of the principal aspar- 



FERTILIZERS AND FERTILIZING 73 

agus sections. The objections made against stable 
manure are that it is more expensive to handle, that it 
is apt to get the land full of weeds, and that it does 
not contain sufficient phosphoric acid and potash. At 
present many growers use commercial fertilizers exclu- 
sively, convinced that asparagus needs liberal feeding 
of potash and more nitrogen than is generally sup- 
posed to be required. 

The composition of 1,000 parts of fresh asparagus 
sprouts is, according to Wolff: 

Water Q33 parts 

Nitrogen 3.2 

Ash 5.0 

Potash 1.2 " 

Soda 0.9 " 

Lime 0.6 

Magnesia 0.2 " 

Phosphoric acid 0.9 

Sulphuric acid 0.3 

Silica 0.5 " 

Chlorine 0.3 

This analysis shows very accurately what a given 
weight of asparagus abstracts from the soil, but it does 
not, and can not, show or even indicate certain indis- 
pensable demands. In this, as in other cases, the 
analysis of a crop is a very uncertain guide to its 
proper fertilization. It should be clearly understood 
by every cultivator of the soil that no rigidly fixed 
formulas can be given for any one crop on all soils. 
The question of quantity of application and of pro- 
portion must always, in the very nature of the case, 
remain more or less a matter of individual experi- 



74 ASPARAGUS 

ment. The following formula, given by Prof. P. H. 
Rolfs, makes a good asparagus fertilizer : 

Nitrogen 4 per cent. 

Potash 5 

Available phosphoric acid ... 7 

One thousand five hundred pounds of the above 
formula should be applied per acre. When possible 
apply twenty to forty tons of vegetable material, such 
as partially rotted rakings of barnyard manure. 
Where such vegetable matter is procurable, the quan- 
tity of nitrogen may be decreased proportionately. If 
manure is obtainable, allowance should be made for 
the fertilizing elements contained therein. 

An excellent formula for one ton of asparagus fer- 
tilizer, given by Prof. W. F. Massey, consists of : 

200 lbs. nitrate of soda 

700 " cottonseed-meal 

800 " acid phosphate (13 per cent.) 

300 ' ' muriate of potash 

This will yield 4.9 per cent, ammonia, 6.1 percent, 
available phosphoric acid, 8.4 per cent, potash. 

The effects of the application of a scientifically 
balanced fertilizer ration upon asparagus is clearly 
illustrated in Fig. 21, which presents a photographic 
reproduction of an experimental plat of the North 
Carolina State Horticultural Society at Southern 
Pines, N. C, fertilized with 

250 lbs. nitrate of soda 
400 ' ' acid phosphate 
160 ' ' mu riate 1 if potash 

per acre, while Fig. 22 shows a plat of equal size 
which remained unfertilized. 



76 ASPARAGUS 

The following table gives the amounts of different 
fertilizer materials necessary to give the desired quan- 
tity of each element : 

Element Pounds of different materials J 'or one acre 

I 800 to 1,000 lbs. cottonseed-meal; or 
] 350 to 400 " nitrate of soda ; or 
I 275 to 300 " sulphate of ammonia; or 
[400 to 600 " dried tdood. 



Nitrogen 



300 to 500 lbs. k a in it ; or 
Potash -J 150 lbs. muriate of potash; or 

I 150 to 300 lbs. sulphate of potash 



Phosphoric ai id 



750 to 1,000 lbs. acid phosphate; or 
600 to 800 " dissolved bone. 



"Asparagus requires very heavy manuring, and 
yet its composition would not indicate it," writes Mr. 
Charles V. Mapes. " The explanation is found in the 
fact that it must grow very rapidly, otherwise it is 
tough, stringy and flavorless, the same as with radishes. 
If it had a long season to grow in, like timothy hay, it 
might grow successfully in very poor soil. A half ton 
of timothy hay contains about as much plant food, and 
in similar proportions, as two thousand bunches of 
asparagus, or five thousand quarts of strawberries, and 
yet while this quantity of hay will grow on an acre of 
almost any poor soil, the strawberries or asparagus for 
a fair crop per acre require a rich garden soil. If the 
hay were obliged to make as rapid growth as the 
asparagus, then it also would require rich soil. With 
the strawberry there is but the lapse of a few weeks 



78 ASPARAGUS 

from the time of blossoming to the full development of 
its fruit. The- plants need a superabundance of plant 
food within easy reach, otherwise the fruit is small and 
interior. The plant can not bear profitable fruit and 
at the same time be compelled to struggle for exist- 
ence. The same is the case witli asparagus. Neither 
of these crops can take up out of the soil all the 
fertilizer that needs to be applied for their successful 
growth, and therefore there is necessarily a large 
quantity of plant food unused and left over in the 
soil." 

For these reasons, asparagus, while not necessarily 
an exhaustive crop, requires heavy manuring. One 
ton of high grade vegetable manure is none too much 
per acre, and is small, particularly in the expense, as 
compared with the larger quantities of stable manure 
per acre, as recommended by some successful growers. 
As already stated, formerly it was thought necessary 
to place large quantities of manure in the bottom of 
the dee]) trenches in which the young plants were set 
out, in order that sufficient fertility might be present 
for several years for the roots, as after the plants were 
once planted there would be no further opportunity to 
apply the manure in such an advantageous place. 
This theory has been found erroneous and the practice 
has been demonstrated to be rather a waste than other- 
wise, and besides the roots of asparagus thrive better 
when resting upon a more compact soil; nor is it 
necessary that the soil should contain great amounts of 
humus, or be in an extremely fertile condition when 
the plants are first put out, since by the system of top- 
dressing a moderately fertile soil soon becomes exceed- 



FERTILIZERS AND FERTILIZING 79 

ingly rich and equal to the demands which the plants 
make upon it. 

The plan of top-dressing beds during the fall or 
early winter is gradually giving way to the more 
rational mode of top-dressing in the spring or summer. 
It was believed that autumn dressing strengthened the 
roots and enabled them to throw up stronger shoots 
during the following spring. This is a mistake, how- 
ever. In the Oyster Bay region formerly all manuring 
was done in the spring, but the practice of applying 
all fertilizers immediately after the cutting is finished 
is rapidly increasing. The reason for this is found in 
the fact that, during the growth of the stalks, after the 
cutting season is over, the crowns form the buds from 
which the spears of next season spring, and it is prob- 
able that it is principally during this period that the 
roots assimilate and store up the materials which pro- 
duce these spears. This being true, the plant food 
added to the soil and becoming available after the 
cessation of vegetation in the autumn can have little, 
if any, effect upon the spears which are cut for market 
the following spring; it first becomes of use to the 
plant after the crop has been cut and the stalks allowed 
to grow. Thus the manuring of the autumn of 1901 
will not benefit the grower materially until the spring 
of 1903. 

Nevertheless, some highly .successful asparagus 
raisers continue to apply fertilizers in the spring, as 
evidenced by the following directions given by one of 
the most prominent growers in the Oyster Bay dis- 
trict : " After the roots have been set in the drill, put 
enoueh soil on them to cover about two inches. 



So ASPARAGUS 

Then sow about 500 pounds of high grade potato 
fertilizer per acre in the drill. As the weeds com- 
mence to grow, cultivate and hoe, letting the soil cave 
down in the drill. About the middle of the season 
sow about 500 pounds more of fertilizer in the drill. 
Continue to cultivate and hoe the remainder of the sea- 
son. At the end of the season the drill should be 
entirely filled up. The second year sow about 2,000 
pounds of fertilizer per acre broadcast, plow the ground 
and harrow it down level, and keep the ground clean. 
The third year open the drill over the asparagus with 
a one-horse plow, broadcast 2,000 pounds of fertilizer 
per acre about the time the shoots begin to show, 
and back-furrow it up with a plow over the drill to form 
a ridge. Then smooth the ridge down with a home- 
made implement resembling a snow-plow reversed. 
Cut every morning all the shoots that show through 
the ground. Do not cut more than four weeks in the 
first cutting season. Continue to broadcast 2,000 
pounds of fertilizer per acre every year." 

From what has been said in regard to the various 
methods of applying fertilizers to asparagus, it will be 
readily understood that it can make but little differ- 
ence how it is distributed, whether on the rows, be- 
tween the rows, or broadcast, so long as enough of it 
is put on the land. In an established asparagus bed 
the entire ground is a dense network of roots, and 
wherever the fertilizer is put some of the roots will 
find it, but not those of the plants over the crowns of 
which it has been planted ; not more so than the feed- 
ing roots of an apple tree can reach a heap of manure 
piled around its trunk. 



FERTILIZERS AND FERTILIZING 8 1 

SALT AS A FERTILIZER 

Salt is but little used now by commercial asparagus 
growers, though it has been recommended for this 
crop from time immemorial. About the principal ad- 
vantage to be derived from its use is that of killing 
weeds without injuring asparagus, although it may be 
applied iu sufficient quantities to injure the asparagus. 
The indirect fertilizing value of salt is mainly due to 
the fact that it has the power of changing unavailable 
forms of plant food into available forms ; but this 
object may be secured cheaper and better by the use 
of kainit. In sandy soils it may encourage the supply 
of moisture, but on naturally moist and retentive soils 
heavy dressings of salt may do more harm than good. 

Much of the benefits to asparagus for which salt 
gets credit is its use in a small way in the home 
garden, due to the fact that not dry salt, but the brine 
and residue of the pork and corned beef barrels is 
applied to the asparagus beds. This brine is rich in 
animal matter extracted from the meat, and usually 
also in saltpeter, which has been used in pickling. 
The latter substance alone, without the addition of 
salt, exerts a strong fertilizing effect upon the plants. 

After a series of carefully conducted experiments 
by Mr. Charles V. Mapes, he writes : 

" Salt was only effectual as a fertilizer in propor- 
tion as the soil contained accumulated supplies of 
plant food, either from previous manurings or from 
natural strength. Asparagus, unlike nearly all other 
crops, will stand almost unlimited quantities of salt 
without injury. It also thrives near the seashore, 



82 ASPARAGUS 

and it was therefore generally believed that liberal 
quantities of salt were a necessity to its successful 
growth. Experience has shown, however, that its 
presence is not at all necessary for its growth, and 
that the reason that a bed to which salt has been 
applied shows quickened and improved growth is that 
the salt dissolves out of the soil plant food which, 
without the presence of the salt, would have become 
too slowly reduced to available condition for producing 
good crops. The salt acted practically as a stimulant 
and added nothing except chlorine and soda, neither 
of which in any considerable quantity is essential for 
growing this crop. It is this dissolving action that 
takes place in the soil whenever any soluble salt or 
fertilizer, like kainit, potash salts, acid phosphates, 
etc., be applied to the soil, that is often mistaken for 
a manuring one. The result is an exhaustion, not a 
strengthening, of the soil. The crop is grown at the 
expense of the limited supply of food that the soluble 
salt can act upon. The fertilizer has acted practically 
as a stimulant." 



XI 

HARVESTING AND MARKETING 



The chief labor in asparagus culture is the cut- 
ting and bunching. As it is of the greatest 
Him importance that the work be done promptly 
and expeditiously, it is desirable to have 
more help than is wanted merely for the asparagus, 
and then, when the asparagus is ready for market, 
they can go to hoeing and tilling other crops. Five 
acres in full bearing will require from six to eight 
men from four to six hours per day to do the cutting 
and three or four to do the bunching. A successful 
farmer in western New York, who has four acres of 
asparagus, employs eight or ten boys and girls, for 
from three to six hours pur day, to do the cutting 
and three women to bunch it. The women are paid by 
the bunch, and work five to ten hours per day. Piece- 
work, if properly done, is nearly always cheaper than 
day work, and is better for the employes and the em- 
ployer. 

CUTTING 

As has been stated in a previous chapter, cutting 
should not begin until the plants have become strong 
and vigorous, which requires two or three years from 
the planting. In the latitude of New York City the 
cutting season commences usually the last week in 
April and closes July ioth, although but few grower-- 



84 ASPARAGUS 

cut after the ist, particularly if the season has been 
a favorable one. Except on old and well-established 
plantings, cutting should not extend for more than six 
or seven weeks. Some growers cut asparagus as long 
as it pays to ship, regardless of the damage done to the 
plants. The old rule to discontinue cutting asparagus 
when green peas are abundant is a safe one to follow, 
especially in the home garden. Unlike other crops, 
about as much can be cut each day, or at each cutting, 
as the day before, during the season, varying only 
according to the weather. 

Manner of cutting ; — The mode of cutting aspara- 
gus varies according to the requirements of the mar- 
kets, whether green or white stalks are desired. What- 
ever individual preferences may be, the fact is that in 
New York City, and some other large market centers, 
75 percent, of the asparagus sold is white or blanched, 
and it would be useless to try to persuade the buyers 
to take any other. To show how extreme the con- 
victions are in this matter of taste, we quote from 
Prof. J. F. C. Du Pre, of the Clemson Agricultural 
College: "Why any one should prefer the almost 
tasteless, insipid white to the green 'grass,' into 
which the sunshine has put the flavor of ambrosia, 
is beyond my comprehension." On the other hand, 
Lebceuf, the famous asparagus expert of Argenteuil, 
writes: "Properly blanched asparagus is infinitely 
more tender and delicate than green. To serve up 
green asparagus is to dishonor the table." 

In recent years a compromise has been made be- 
tween the two styles. By allowing the tops of the 
hilled-up sprouts to grow four inches above the sur- 



HARVESTING AND MARKETING 



85 



face, the upper half of the stalk is green while the 
lower half remains white. 

For green asparagus the sprouts are cut when six 
or seven inches high, and then only so far below the 
surface as to furnish a stalk about nine inches long. 
For the white style the rows have to be ridged twelve 
inches above the crowns, and the stalks are cut as soon 




FIG. 23 — BASKET OK ASPARAGUS READY FOR THE BUNCHING 
SHED 



as the tops show above the ground, the cutting off 
being eight or nine inches below the surface. 

Whichever method is followed, it is very impor- 
tant to cut every day during the season, and to cut 
clean at each cutting, taking all the small sprouts as 
well as the large ones. If the weak and spindling 
shoots are allowed to grow they will draw away the 
strength from the roots, to the injury of the crop. 

When cutting, the sprout is taken in the left hand 



HARVESTING AND MARKETING 87 

and the knife run down close alongside of it to the 
proper depth, carefully avoiding other spears that are 
just beginning to push up all around the crown. 
Then the handle of the knife is moved away from 
the stalk, to give it the proper slant, the knife shoved 
down so as to sever the stalk with a tapering cut, 
and at the same time the stalk is pulled out. After 
cutting, the asparagus should be removed out of the 
sun as soon as possible to prevent its wilting and 




FIG. 25 — HORSE CARRIER FOR TEN BOXES OK ASPARAGUS 

discoloring. Usually this is done by dropping the 
stalks in a basket which, when full (Fig. 23), is 
carried to the bunching shed. On large plantations, 
however, the cutters leave the stalks on the ground to 
be picked up by boys following closoly, as seen in 
Fig. 24. To facilitate the picking up and carrying 
away, horse carriers are used, as shown in Fig. 25. 

In some sections of Europe, especially at the famous 
asparagus regions of Argenteuil, a knife is never used. 
According to W. Robinson : ' ' The slightly hardened 
crust around the emerging bud and on top of the little 
mound is pushed aside, the fore and middle finger 



88 ASPARAGUS 

separated are then thrust deeply into the soft soil, 
pushing the earth outwards. If a rising shoot be met 
with on the way down, it is carefully avoided. A 
second plunge of the two fingers and pushing out of 
the earth usually brings them to the hardened ground 
about the crest of the root ; the forefinger is then 
slipped behind the base of the shoot fit to gather, and 
pushed gently outward, when the shoot at once snaps 
clean off its base. This plan has the advantage of 
leaving no mutilated shoots or decaying matter on the 
ground. Once gathered, care is taken that the shoot 
is not exposed to the light, but placed at once in a 
covered basket. As soon as the stalk is gathered, the 
earth is gently and loosely drawn up with the hand, so 
as to leave the surface of the mound as it was before, 
not pressing the earth in any way, but keeping it quite 
free. The shoots are not rubbed or cleaned in any 
way — it would disfigure them, and they do not re- 
quire it." 

Knives. — There are several styles of knives for cut- 
ting asparagus, but an ordinary ten-inch butcher- 
knife with the point cut square off, leaving the end 
about an inch and a quarter wide and ground sharp 
like a chisel, answers the purpose as well as any of the 
implements made especially for the purpose. Another 
serviceable tool for cutting asparagus is a carpenter's 
thin firmer-chisel, one and one-half inches wide, nearly 
flat, and the thinnest that ean be obtained ground on 
the convex side or back, about an inch from the end, 
which should be rounded off on the inside to prevent 
them from injuring sprouts nearby. Other styles of 
asparagus knives are seen in Fig. 26. 



HARVESTING AND MARKETING 



8 9 



SORTING AND BUNCHING 

In some local markets asparagus is sold loose, by 
weight, in which case but little regard is paid to the 
size and length and color of the stalks, nor to the style 
of packing. This is the most profitable way for the 
grower to sell, as it saves him all the expense and labor 
of bunching, and as even the smallest stalks are thus 




FIG. 26 — VARIOUS ASPARAGUS KNIVES 

salable, there is no waste whatever, while the prices 
obtained are about the same as those for first-class 
bunches — that is, two pounds of loose asparagus sell 
for about the same price as a full-sized bunch. But in 
city markets asparagus could hardly be sold in such a 
condition, and it is of first importance that it should 
be carefully graded and neatly bunched. 

So7ii?ig. — Careful growers assort into three sizes : 
extras, primes, and seconds. The size and weight of 
the bunches vary somewhat in different markets. 



go 



ASPARAGUS 



Bunches varying from six to twelve inches in length 
arc received at wholesale centers, but the most con- 
venient and popular size for a bunch of prime white 
asparagus is eight and one-half inches long, averaging 
thirty spears, and weighing two pounds. The side 
view of one and the end view of three bunches of this 
size of white asparagus are shown in Fig. 27. To 
assure uniformity some ingenious contrivances have 




27 — END AND SIDE VIEW OB PRIME WHITE ASPARAGUS 
1:1 NCHES 



been invented, most of which are a great improvement 
over the old-time bunchers, e< insisting merely of a board 
with four pins, six inches long, and placed about four 
inches apart each way, to form a square. Two strings, 
usually of bast matting, were laid down on the board, 
which was set on a bench up against the wall, or had 
a back made of another board tacked on it at right 
angles. The asparagus was laid uii the buncher be- 



HARVESTING AND MARKETING 



91 



tween the pins, the tops touching the back or wall to 
keep them even. When the bunch was large enough 
the strings were tied firmly, and the butt end of the 
bunch cut square. 

B iaii hers. — The modern bunchers are constructed 
of cast iron and are easily handled. One of the first to 




FIG. 2S — cunover's asparagus buncher 

come into use was Conover's ( Fig. 28 ). The principle 
of the operation is that the stalks are placed between 
two brass strips, a hinged cover is brought down by 
means of a lever and held in place until the strings are 
tied. Two ties should be used, one placed about two 
inches from either end. The bunch must be tied so 
tightly that it will not loosen in handling and trans- 
portation to market. The Watt's Buncher ( Fig. 29), 
used extensively in New Jersey, is so arranged that the 



92 



ASPARAGUS 



arms may be adjusted to any size bunch desired by 
simply loosening the bolts at either end, and pulling 
out the arms so as to fit the shape of the bunch, and 
thus both ends can be bunched properly. The style 
of buneher and knives in favor with growers in the 
famous asparagus region near Concord. Mass., are seen 
in Fig. 30, and the process of bunching in Fig. 31. 




FIG. 2ij — WATTS ASPARAGUS BUNCHER 



Tying materials. — Twine, Cuban bast, sisal, and 
various other materials are used for tying, but nothing 
is better for this purpose than raffia fiber. This is 
obtained from the raffia or rofia palm, a native of the 
island of Madagascar. The tree sends enormous 
branches from near the ground, the pinnate leaves of 
wdiich produce this fiber. ( )ne palm frond will produce 
eighty to one hundred long, green leaflets from two to 
five feet in length, and from this the fiber is prepared. 
"Silk lamba " is also a product of this palm. Raffia 
fiber is now extensively used for tying up plants, for 
grafting, and many other purposes, as it is very strong, 
as soft as silk, and is not affected by moisture or 



HARVESTING AND MARKETING 93 














KIG. 30 — RACK AM) KNIVES USED IN NEW ENGLAND 

changes of temperature, and it does not break or ravel 
when folded or knotted. 

Rubber bands. — The use of rubber bands for fasten- 
ing asparagus bunches has recently been found to have 
some advantages not possessed by other materials. 
Prof. W. J. Green, of the Ohio Experiment Station, 
writes in Bulletin No. 9 : " The work can be done 
more rapidly and better. The saving in time is fully 
one-third, which will pay for the increased cost of 
rubber over string, reckoning wages at seventy-five 



HARVESTING AND MARKETING 95 

cents per day. This difference might be less where 
expert tyers are employed, or very low rates per 
hundred bunches are paid. In any case, the work can 
be done in a manner that is much more satisfactory to 
dealers with rubber than with string. This is owing 
to the fact that rubber holds the bunches intact, while 
string allows them to fall apart and to become unsightly. 
Doubtless, in some cases, dealers would be willing to 
pay more for bunches fastened with rubber than for 
those put up in the ordinary manner. Even though 
no difference is made in price for asparagus put up by 
the two methods, the bunches fastened with rubber 
bands sell more readily than those tied with string. 

" Rubber bands can be bought for two dollars per 
pound, and the size best adapted to the purpose run 
about two thousand bands per pound, or sufficient for 
one thousand bunches. This makes rubber bands 
cost about two cents per dozen bunches more than 
string, if the saving in labor is not taken into con- 
sideration. 

"The saving in the item of labor depends, of 
course, upon the kind of labor employed. In deter- 
mining the relative value of the two methods not only 
must cost of labor be taken into consideration, but the 
character of the market as well. When competition is 
not strong careful bunching is not a matter of great 
importance, but in many markets it is essential that 
the bunches be put up in such a manner that they will 
not fall apart. In such cases rubber bands will more 
than pay for their extra cost, by insuring more ready 
sales, if not by increasing the price. 

"The method employed in bunching with rubber 



96 ASPARAGUS 

bands is to slip a band over an ordinary teacnp — one 
with straight sides and without a handle; fill the cup 
with asparagus shoots, the heads downward, and then 
slip the band from the cup to the bunch. This makes 
a bunch of about the right size, and gives the upper 
end a nicely rounded appearance. All that remains to 
be done is to slip on another band and to square the 
butts with a sharp knife. Possibly a metallic cup 
would answer better, being thinner, but a teacup is 
not objectionable in this particular. If smaller bunches 
are desired than the smallest cup that can be found, it 
is not necessary to fill the cup." 

MARKETING 

During the entire process of cutting, sorting, 
bunching, and packing great care must be exercised 
not to bruise or in any way injure the heads, as the 
gummy juice of these soon heats and spoils the whole. 
They should also be kept cool and dry, else the mois- 
ture causes decay. Of course if, when cutting, the 
ground is wet, some of the soil will adhere to the 
lower ends of the stalks; this has to be rinsed off in 
clean water, but not by immersing the entire stalk. 

If the bunches are to be kept over night, before 
packing, the butts should be dipped in clean water 
and stood on end on a cold cellar bottom, or upon 
grass or hay that has been thoroughly wet; but the 
crowns, or the green portions of the sprouts, should 
never be sprinkled or wet. It is a common practice to 
set the bunches in shallow pans containing water, but 
this is apt to give a bitter taste to the stalks. 

Crates. — There is no standard shape or size of 



HARVESTING AND MARKETING 



97 



crates for shipping asparagus, and in the wholesale 
markets of New York City a great variety of styles is 
found. Of late ordinary twenty-four or thirty-two 
quart berry crates have come into favor with near by 
growers, as they are cheap, light, and easily handled. 



nwr/rimirrHxiri 



WMMMi 



1 




1 It 





FIG. 32 — Box (IK GIANT ASPARAGUS READY FOR SHIPMENT 

111 these the bunches are laid down flat, in tiers, alter- 
nating the butt ends so that when the crates are full 
the top row is level with the cover. Some growers, 
of very fine asparagus even, use solid wooden boxes. 
Fig. 32 shows such a box containing three dozen 
bunches. A crate with the top a few inches narrower 



9 8 



ASPARAGUS 




FIG. 33 — SOUTHERN ASPARAGUS CRATE, CONTAINING 24 
BUNCHES OF GREEN ASPARAGUS 




-■.'- 14-'/z in 






I /9/" 




FIG. 34— END PIEi E OF SOUTHERN CRATE 



than the bottom has the advantage that it holds the 
bunches more firmly together than straight-sided 
boxes. Fig. 33 shows a crate containing two dozen 
bunches of green asparagus ready for shipment, with 
the exception of the slats to be nailed on the side. 
Fig. 34 shows the shape of the end pieces. These 
crates are made of various sizes, according to the 



HARVESTING AND MARKETING 99 

length of the bunches. The crate here illustrated was 
24 inches long, 12 inches high, 19 inches wide at the 
bottom, and 1 4 j _> inches at the top, inside measure- 
ment. The end boards were ";-, of an inch thick, and 
the slats about half an inch. 

In shipping to a distant market some thoroughly 
wet grass, or sphagnum moss, should be put in the 
bottom of the crate, the bunches stood on ends, butt 
down, and pressed so tightly together that they can 
not move or shift in handling. The crate should have 
a tight bottom and ends. The sides may be tight half 
way up, and the rest of the sides and the top should 
be slatted. This keeps the butts moist and the tops 
dry and cool. 



XII 

FORCING 



Tin-: forcing of asparagus in various methods has 
been practiced for centuries, and is rapidly 
jg^jfc^S developing into an important industry. The 
forcing may be done in any place where a 
temperature of 50 to 6o° can he secured, in the green- 
house, hot-bed, pit, cellar, or in the garden and field. 
Whichever plan is pursued, the management of the 
plants to be forced is the same. The roots should not 
be less than three years old, and, if obtainable, four or 
five-year-old plants are to be preferred. These maybe 
dug up from ordinary out-of-door plantations, or, if 
the forcing is to be done on a large scale and as a per- 
manent industry, the plants have to be grown from 
seed for this special purpose. To keep up a continu- 
ous succession new sowings have to be made every 
year. The sowing of the seed and the management 
of the plants during the first year is the same as 
described in Chapter Y. 

The following year, as early as the season permits, 
the one-year-old seedlings are planted out in rows, to de- 
velop as much strength as possible. As the plants are to 
remain only two j^ears in the nursery bed, they may be 
placed closer than in a permanent plantation. A dis- 
tance of two and one-half feet between the rows and one 
foot in tlie rows is, however, the narrowest limit, and, 

Too 



FORCING IOI 

where enough ground is available, three by one and 
one-half or two feet would be still better. By pur- 
chasing one-year-old plants a year's time may be 
gained, but otherwise there are decided advantages in 
raising one's own plants. During the following two 
seasons the ground has to be kept in the best possible 
tilth, and at the end of the third season from seed the 
roots may be dug just before the ground is likely to 
freeze. In lifting the roots it is important not to ex- 
pose them to the drying influence of the sun and air 
more than is unavoidable. It is also important to pre- 
serve the entire clump intact with as much soil adher- 
ing to the roots and crown as possible. They are 
then placed in a shed, pit, or cool cellar, and covered 
with sand or soil to prevent their drying out. Mod- 
erate freezing does not injure the roots, and some 
growers think that it even adds to their forcing value. 

FORCING IN THE GREENHOUSE 

With florists the forcing of asparagus has this im- 
portant advantage: that the income obtained from it is 
nearly all gain, as the space under the benches, which 
may thus be utilized, is of but little use for other pur- 
poses. If the floor tinder the benches is soil this is 
dug out so as to form a pit about a foot deep, or at 
least a few 7 inches deeper than the clumps are high. 
Three or four inches of good rich soil is scattered over 
the bottom, and upon this the clumps are placed close 
together. Dry, mellow soil is then scattered between 
and over the clumps, so that the crowns are covered 
one or two inches, and given a thorough watering. If 
blanched shoots are desired, the crowns will have to be 



102 ASPARAGUS 

covered with six or eight inches of soil. The same 
object may be obtained by shutting off the light, which 
can easily be accomplished under greenhouse benches. 
Where it is not practicable to make excavations under 
the benches, a pit may be constructed by placing 
boards against the posts and filling in the space thus 
furnished. To secure a succession, new roots from 
the reserve stock have to be planted every three or 
four weeks. 

For the first week or ten days after placing the 
roots in the forcing-pit they should be kept rather cool, 
so as to give them a chance to become established. A 
temperature of 45 to 50 is best, at first. Afterward 
it should be raised to 55 to 6o°, and during the day 
it may rise as high as 8o° to 85 . But, asarule, very 
high temperatures induce a spindling growth. During 
the entire forcing process asparagus requires a large 
amount of water, but unless it has the chill taken off, 
and ample means for drainage are provided, it may do 
far more harm than good. The interval between the 
time of planting and the first cutting varies greatly, 
according to the temperature and other conditions. 

The following are actual dates of asparagus forcing 
under benches at Cornell University : Plants taken 
from an old patch November 29th and set under 
benches three days later. December 4th, shoots just 
pushing through. December 8th, first shoots cut, 
averaging nine inches long. December 14th, first good 
cutting, shoots running from six to fifteen inches long. 
December 18th, second good cutting. December 26th, 
a good cutting, some of the shoots having remained 
too long and become woody ; some of these shoots were 



FORCING 103 

two feet long. January 10th, a heavy cutting. Janu- 
ary 19th, cut about half as many shoots as on the 10th. 
January 30th, ent about as much as on the 19th, but 
shoots growing smaller. February 10th, small cut- 
ting of weak shoots. Beyond this time there were no 
shoots worth cutting. 

FORCING IN HOTBEDS AND FRAMES 

The forcing of asparagus in hotbeds does not differ 
materially from that in the greenhouse, except in the 
supply of heat. "A most suitable place for forcing- 
asparagus, ' ' writes William Scott, in Garden and Forest, 
" is a frame about four feet deep with one-fourth inch 
hot-water pipe running around it. About two and 
one-half feet of fresh stable litter should be put into 
the frame and firmly packed, with an inch or two of 
sand spread over it. This bed should be allowed to 
stand until the heat of the manure has declined 
to about 70 , and not below 65 , before the crowns 
are placed on it. For this work advantage should 
be taken of a day when the weather is mild, as 
the crowns are easily damaged by frost. Large crowns 
five or six years old are preferable to smaller ones for 
forcing. They may be placed rather closely together 
in the frame, but the distance apart must be regulated 
by their size. The roots should be spread evenly over 
the surface and covered with six inches of sand. Little 
water will be required, as the steam from the manure 
affords considerable moisture ; but if the bed should 
become dry, it may be moistened with water of the 
same temperature as the soil in the frame. A little 
air may be admitted, when the day is bright and warm, 



104 ASPARAGUS 

to keep the temperature from rising above 8o°. 
When the points of the shoots begin to appear above 
the sand the erop is reach' to cut. When ground is 
plentiful, a supply of forcing crowns can be kept 
up by sowing a little seed every year, having five 
or six successions, the oldest plants being forced for 
cutting." 

With French gardeners it is customary to plunge 
the frames in warm stable manure and place the roots 
directly in the manure, packed as closely together as 
possible. A mere sprinkling of soil is placed over 
them. As a result the shoots come up very thick. 
Only strong, fine three-year-old roots are used, and 
as many as five crops of roots follow each other through 
the autumn, winter, and spring in the same frame. 
Straw mats are used to cover the frames at night. 

FORCING IN TIIK FIELD 

Forcing asparagus where it is grown in the field 
has a twofold advantage over removing the roots to a 
warm place. First, it saves the trouble and expense of 
transplanting them, which must be done with much 
care; and, second, it saves the plants from being ruined 
by the forcing process. Plants forced in the field 
where they grow will, if given good care, regain their 
vigor in a season or two, and may be used again for 
forcing. By this latter method a better quality and a 
larger quantity of marketable asparagus is also secured. 

Various means have been devised to force asparagus 
in the field, where it is so well established that it 
continues growth in the summer as though it had not 
been forced the previous winter. A simple and rather 



FORCING I05 

common method of accomplishing this is to place 
barrels over clumps of asparagus very early in the 
spring and pile fermenting manure about them, the 
warmth from the manure forcing the shoots into rapid 
growth. When the forcing season is over and the 
danger from frost is past the barrels are removed, and 
the plants continue growth in the open air. Some- 
times asparagus is forced by placing frames, covered 
with sash, over the plants in the field, the rows of 
asparagus being set rather close together. This is 
considered a very profitable method by many market 
gardeners. Another method of forcing asparagus in 
the field is to dig ditches between the rows and fill 
them with fermenting manure. The surface of the 
bed may also be mulched with manure. The latter 
plan is extensively practiced by French market 
gardeners. 

At the beginning of November the pathways 
between the beds of asparagus are dug up about two 
feet in depth and width. The soil coming from the 
pathway is divided very carefully and put about eight 
inches thick on the surface of the bed. The trench is 
filled up with fresh stable manure, not litter, and 
frames are placed on the bed. The manure should rise 
as high as the top of the frames and the lights be 
entirely covered with mats and litter to prevent the 
heat accumulating in the frame from escaping. In 
about two or three weeks the asparagus begins to show 
itself on the surface of the bed. Many market gardeners 
cover the whole of the bed inside the frames to a thick- 
ness of three or four inches with manure, to force the 
vegetation more quickly; but in this case the manure 



106 ASPARAGUS 

must be removed when the asparagus begins to shoot. 
When the shoots are about three inches out of the 
ground they may be cut. The mats must be taken off 
in the daytime, but the heat must be well kept up, else 
the roots and buds will fail to push. The beds are 
forced every second year only. The gathering of the 
asparagus may continue for about two months but no 
longer, or the plantation would be injured. When the 
gathering is over the frames are taken away, and the 
soil which was dug up from the alleys is put back 
again. 

An ingenious method of forcing asparagus in the 
field by means of shallow tunnels was devised and suc- 
cessfully carried out by Prof. J. C. Whitten, at the 
Missouri Experiment Station, who gives the following 
account in Bulletin No. 43 : 

' ' The field selected for the experiment was planted 
to asparagus about ten years ago. The plants were 
in fair vigor, though of a small variety. The first 
section forced embraced six ro\\>, four feet apart, and 
fifty feet long. Fig. 35 shows this section with one 
tunnel uncovered. Trenches were first made between 
the rows. This was done by plowing between them, 
twice in a place, throwing the furrows on the plants 
so as to cover each row with two furrows of loose 
earth. These trenches between the rows were then 
made uniform by means of the spade. When finished 
they were three or four inches lower than the crowns 
of asparagus in the adjacent rows. These trenches 
were then covered with twelve-inch boards, which 
rested on four-inch blocks, placed at frequent intervals 
along either side of the trenches. This formed tun- 



I08 ASPARAGUS 

nels between the rows for conducting the steam. To 
guard against the steam's escaping, two or three 
inches of soil was placed over the boards, and the 
asparagus patch was then covered with five or six 
inches of horse manure. This covering was to prevent 
the heat from escaping from the soil too rapidly. It 
was then ready for the steam to be turned into the 
tunnels. 

" To conduct the steam a one and one-half inch 
pipe was carried above ground from the boiler to one 
cud of the central tunnel, a distance of one hundred 
and eighty-five feet. A steam hose long enough to 
reach each tunnel was attached to this pipe through 
which to blow steam into the tunnels. It was not the 
idea to give a constant supply of steam, but to dis- 
charge a little into the tunnels each afternoon, or as 
often as was necessary to maintain sufficient warmth. 
A piece of tile was inserted into the mouth of each 
tunnel to prevent the discharging steam from tearing 
away the earth. 

" The first steam was turned into the tunnels on 
November 14th. Steam was discharged into each 
tunnel, not to exceed five minutes at a time, in order 
not to heat the earth too hot in any single place. It 
required about one hour of steaming the first day to 
bring the bed up to the required temperature of sixty 
degrees. The distribution of heat throughout the 
bed was very uniform and satisfactory. The moist 
steam seemed to permeate the soil equally in all 
directions. 

" After the first day very little steaming was neces- 
sary until the asparagus began to be produced. On 



FORCING 109 

an average the bed was steamed about twice in three 
days and then only for about five minutes for each 
tunnel. The soil and horse manure mulch seemed to 
hold the heat very well, the frequent steamings keep- 
ing up fermentation in the mulch. 

" The first asparagus was cut November 24th, ten 
days after the first steam was applied. The stems 
were cut just before they got through the soil and 
were perfectly bleached. They were as large as those 
ordinarily produced during the normal period of 
growth in spring, and were far more crisp and 
delicious. 

" Cuttings of asparagus were made almost daily for 
about a month, when the growth became somewhat 
weak. The last cutting was made on December 22d. 
During the month 141 bunches of the ordinary market 
size, and weighing about one-half pound each, were 
cut from this bed of 25 x 50 feet. This was equivalent 
to 300 feet of row or 100 hills of asparagus. 

" Exhausting steam into the asparagus bed, instead 
of returning it to the boiler in an inclosed circuit, would 
at first seem to be a wasteful process of heating. 
Experiment showed, however, that the circumstances 
justified this method. Heating a bed of this kind by 
a circuit of steam-pipes or hot-water pipes is very un- 
satisfactory. The heat from pipes very soon dries out 
the soil around the tunnels, destroying its power to 
conduct heat. In this way the bed becomes too hot 
and dry adjacent to the tunnels and too cold a short 
distance from them. It also becomes necessary to 
maintain heat in the pipes a good part of the time. 

" By blowing steam directly into the tunnels the 



HO ASPARAGUS 

soil is kept moist ; the steam has a penetrating effect, 
and permeates all parts of the bed, giving a uniform 
heat throughout ; this moist steam keeps up a con- 
tinual fermentation of the manure mulch, thus giving 
heat, and only occasional brief steamings are necessary. 

" Care must be taken not to use too much steam 
at one time, or the plants may be ruined by overheat- 
ing. Our asparagus rows were four feet apart, the 
tunnels midway between them were only eight inches 
wide, and yet we found that five minutes at a time 
was as long as was safe to force steam into a single 
tunnel. 

"These experiments have been so successful as to 
indicate that any one provided with a steam-heating 
plant could successfully force asparagus for the mar- 
kets in this manner." 

Another plan of forcing asparagus in the field, 
devised by Prof. L. H. Bailey, is thus described in his 
" Forcing Book": "The Cornell asparagus house — if 
it may be called a house — is about twenty by fifty feet 
and the frame is made of steam-pipes. The sides, or 
walls, are only eighteen inches high, and the frame 
consists simply of a ridge and three pairs of rafters. 
The steam-heating pipe or riser is just beneath the 
ridge, and this feeds two returns upon either side of 
the house, next the walls. When it is desired to force 
the asparagus, canvas or muslin is stretched over the 
frames. No difficulty has been found in starting the 
asparagus into growth in January and February. The 
cover is left on and the heat kept up until all danger 
of frost is past, when the canvas is removed and the 
plants grow naturally out-of-doors. The secret of 



FORCING III 

this method will no doubt be found to lie in allowing 
the plantation to become very thoroughly established 
(at least, three or four years old) before forcing is 
attempted, in the very best tillage and fertilizing dur- 
ing the summer while the plants are growing, in tak- 
ing off the cover just as soon as settled weather comes, 
and in not cutting the plants until after that time. ' ' 



T 



XIII 

PRESERVING ASPARAGUS 

CANNING 
HE canning factory has made asparagus a vege- 
table for every day of the year instead of 
being a luxury for a few weeks, as was for- 
merly the ease. The canners have made it 
a farm crop instead of a garden product. To a great 
extent canning has transformed the farm into a gar- 
den, increasing the profits from every acre planted 
many fold. In many localities an acre of what was 
formerly considered a sandy waste is now yielding 
more than double the net profit of the best acre under 
cultivation in ordinary farm crops. 

Eastern methods. — The pioneers in this industry on 
Long Island, N. Y., have been the Messrs. Hudson & 
Sons, who have extensive plants at Mattituck and 
Riverhead, each of them as complete as mechanical 
skill and enterprise can make them. Each plant con- 
sists of a storehouse, 50x150 feet; a packing-house, 
40 x 125 feet; and a can manufactory, 25 x 60 feet. A 
steam-engine of ten horse-power is required for hoist- 
ing, pumping, and for generating gas for the soldering- 
heaters, and a boiler of one hundred horse-power to 
generate steam for sterilizing the asparagus. A per- 
spective view of one of the plants is seen in Fig. 36. 

The asparagus, as it comes from the growers, is in 
bunches seven and one-half inches long and weighing 



114 ASPARAGUS 

two and one-half pounds each. These bunches are put 
under a cutter and cut to six and five-eighths inches; they 
are then untied and put in a tank four feet wide by eight 
feet long and two feet deep, in which they are washed 
as carefully as it is possible to doit. It is then hoisted 
up to what is called the blanching tank, which contains 
forty gallons. In this it is kept at a scalding heat for 
one-half hour, when it is ready for the cans. These 
are filled by women who soon become very dextrous, 
which is always the ease when the pay is in proportion 
to tlie amount of work done. Each can contains just 
one and one-half pounds. Exact weight is imperative, 
as are details in all manufacturing establishments. 
Great care is exercised in packing, so that there are no 
bruised or broken heads, and that on opening the can 
the stalks may appear as well as if cut fresh from the 
garden. After the asparagus is in the cans they are 
filled with a weak brine, which not only expels the 
air, but adds materially to the flavor of the asparagus. 
The cans are then taken to the soldering-bench for 
sealing up. There systematic labor is noticeable, as 
every detail of canning must be carried on sys- 
tematically to make it profitable. The soldering-irons 
used are hollow and the exact size of the caps, which 
fit perfectly the grooves made for them. A single 
turn of the- iron finishes the work. Before the caps 
are put in their places a small hole is made in each to 
allow the gas, which is generated by the heat from the 
soldering, to escape. Without this precaution it would 
be impossible to hermatically seal the cans. A single 
drop of solder closes the small opening, and the cans 
are ready for the retorts for sterilizing. 



Il6 ASPARAGUS 

Here two methods are employed — dry steam, which 
is the quicker method, and boiling in a closed tank. 
Most of the first-class stock is sterilized in the latter. 
This tank ( Fig. 37 ) is in three sections, in all twenty 
feet long, each section holding five hundred cans. The 
cans are put in iron cribs and are pushed in and taken 
out with steam elevators. As soon as the cans are 
lowered the sections are closed tightly and the steam 
is turned on. The first process of sterilization lasts 
twenty minutes, when the tank is opened, the cans 
taken out, and a vent given each. This permits the 
accumulated gas to escape, which, if allowed to remain, 
would materially injure the quality of the asparagus, 
both in flavor and preservation. For this work a small 
prick punch is used, which makes a hole not larger 
than a pin's head. This vent is almost immediately 
closed with a single drop of solder and the cans are 
again returned to the tanks, where the same operation 
of cooking is repeated. Another twenty minutes com- 
pletes the work, when the cans are removed to the 
packing-room, where they are labeled, wrapped, and 
packed ready for shipment. The cans or boxes are 
seven inches long, four wide, and two and one-half 
deep. A view of the sterilizing-room is presented in 

Fig. 38- 

The culls, which are put up as tips, are small-sized 
and crooked heads which, although of equal value as a 
vegetable, are not shipped to market, as they would 
detract from the value of the first quality, and are con- 
sidered by both farmers and canners as by-products. 
These are cut to three and one-half inches in length, 
and then go through the same process in canning as 



I 1 8 ASPARAGUS 

the first quality, except that dry steam only is used in 
sterilization. After going through the blanching 
process the tips are put in round cans, four inches in 
diameter and five inches high. After soldering np 
these cans they are put in the retorts, which are three 
feet square, each containing five hundred cans, and 
treated with steam two hundred and fifty pounds to 
the inch. The cans remain in these retorts half an 
hour. Then they are taken out, vented, put back 
again, and remain under the same pressure another 
half hour, when the work is completed. 

By rigid economy even in the most minute detail, 
and by the skill required in the knowledge of canning, 
asparagus can now be had at a reasonable price at all 
seasons of the year, which is a boon to both producer 
and consumer. # At #14.00 per one hundred bunches 
for No. 1 and Sj-"" per hundred bunches for No. 2, 
or culls, asparagus is one of the most profitable of 
agricultural crops, and even at one-half these prices 
it is a much better paying crop than potatoes at 50 
rents per bushel. 

Pacific Coast methods.- Canning and preserving of 
asparagus in California is carried on on as grand a 
scale as are most other undertakings. An idea of the 
extent and importance of this comparatively new 
industry may readily be conceived when it is considered 
that one establishment alone, The Hickmott Asparagus 
Canning Co., on Bouldin Island, in the San Joaquin 
River, has recently shipped an entire traindoad of 
canned asparagus from San Francisco to New York. 
This train consisted of fifteen freight-cars containing 
600 cases each, making a total of 9,000 cases, averag- 



120 ASPARAGUS 

ing forty-eight pounds each, thus making an actual 
weight of 432,000 pounds. By far the larger portion 
of the yearly asparagus crop in California is canned or 
preserved in glass, and in that shape sent to the East, 
exported to England and the continent of Europe, and, 
in fact, to every civilized country of the world. For 
canneries where nothing but the white product is put 
up the shoots are cut the instant they show their tips 
above the surface. The canneries arc located as near 
the fields as possible, the effort being to get the prod- 
uct in glass or cans before it becomes in any way 
withered, the important point being that asparagus is 
never allowed to become dried. 

The method employed at Bouldin Island, where a 
crop of [,51 is canned annually, is to have 

troughs containing running water in shady places in 
the fields. The asparagus, as fast as cut, is brought 
to these troughs, and is thoroughly washed. These 
troughs are just wide enough to take in the shoots of 
the proper length for canning, and each piece is trimmed 
before being immersed, from the troughs the aspara- 
gus is taken t< 1 the s< »rting tal tie, then on to the scalding 
vats until it reaches the fillers, where is completed the 
systematic handling of this product, packing it to per- 
fection, nothing remaining except to be labeled, when 
it is ready to be forwarded to the markets of the world. 
The entire process from the time the stalks are taken 
from the ground to the time they are ready for the 
table consumes less than six hours. The process 
throughout i^ a marvel of cleanliness, particular atten- 
tion and stress being laid on every detail connected 
with it. Xo bleaching agents or anything foreign or 



122 ASPARAGUS 

deleterious whatever is used in the packing of this 
plant. In Fig. 39 is seen the interior of one of these 
canneries, where the especially constructed solderless 
cans of the company are being packed. Everything 
connected with the growing, harvesting, and canning 
is done on Bouldin Island, save only the printing 
of the labels. That the operators may be lodged 
in comfort the company has erected modern cot- 
tages for their employes who have families, besides 
well-equipped boarding-houses. The development and 
growth of this asparagus cannery is one of the marvels 
of California. Starting ten years ago with a rented 
boiler, under the arched dome of the sky for a roof, and 
nothing but the shade of weeping willows for a store- 
house, as seen in the Frontispiece, it has developed 
into a superb plant, equipped with all modern appli- 
ances. During the active season 1,500 hands are em- 
ployed directly and indirectly by the canning company, 
and the estimated output for the average season is 
[50,000 cases. Figs. 40 and 41 present perspective 
views of some of the asparagus canneries on Bouldin 

Island. 

DRYING 

Although the drying of asparagus is not much 
practiced in America, it is well worth the attention of 
those who at times have a surplus of fresh stalks. 
Dried asparagus is especially recommended for soups 
and sauces, and if properly prepared it is no less desir- 
able as a table vegetable. Dried asparagus keeps 
indefinitely, and cost of transportation is largely re- 
duced. For the latter purpose medium-sized spears 
are most suitable, as they dry more evenly than larger 



124 ASPARAGUS 

ones. Some recommend the peeling or scalding of the 

stalks before drying, but this is not essential, and, if 
desired, may be done after steaming. On a large 
scale the drying may be done in any modern evap- 
orator. 

For home use the most satisfactory way is to string 
the stalks with a large needle and strong thread 
through the butt ends of the stalks, and hang them 
along buildings or fences where they are exposed to 
the full rays of the sun. To insure a uniform drying 
it is important that all the spears on the string are of 
the same thickness, as the thicker ones require more 
time to dry than those of smaller size. When the air 
is dry and warm one day's exposure to the sun will be 
sufficient to dry them. Otherwise the strings will 
have to be hung up in the kitchen in the evening, or 
in some other dry place over night, to be brought out 
again the following morning, until the asparagus is 
perfectly dry. It is then ready to be ptit in boxes or 
loose bags and stored in a dry place. If the stalks 
have been peeled before drying, when desired for use 
they are placed in cold water for half an hour, some 
salt is added, ami they are cooked like fresh asparagus. 

For preparing dried asparagus that has not been 
peeled before drying, Dr. Brinckmeier recommends 
taking a sufficient number of the dried stalks and 
place them in water, which, while not boiling, is very 
near the boiling point, and keeping them thereuntil they 
resume their succulent, smooth, fresh appearance. To 
keep the water just right a double boiler is best, with 
the stalks in the inner one. The water in the outer 
vessel should be kept at a steady boil. As the stalks 



PRESERVING ASPARAGUS 1 25 

resume the fresh appearance, take them out carefully 
one by one and place in cold water until cooled, after 
which place on a dish to dry. They should be care- 
full)' scalded to remove the hard outside skin, done up 
in a bundle, either by tying with strings or wrapping 
in a piece of netting, placed in boiling water, to which 
a little salt has been added, and allowed to remain 
there a few moments — a very few, for it cooks quickly — 
until done. 

These methods are recommended for white aspara- 
gus only, and when properly dried and cooked 
asparagus so treated is by man)- considered to be 
hardly distinguishable from the freshly cut, although 
it looses its white color in the process. vSmaller and 
green stalks may be dried on wire frames or wooden 
racks over the kitchen stove, similar to apples. 



XIV 



INJURIOUS INSECTS 



While a number of different insects feed upon the 
asparagus plant, there are only two species 
H£jSli$ which have so far become extensively dis- 
tributed and caused serious damage in the 
United States. Both of these were imported from 
Europe, and are limited for their food supply to the 
asparagus plant. 

THE COMMON ASPARAGUS BEETLE* 
(( 'rioi erii asparagi) 

This beetle is by far the most important enemy 
of the asparagus plant. It was first noticed in this 
country at Astoria, I v . I., now a part of New York 
City, in [859, but its actual introduction into that 
locality occurred about 1856. The injury inflidted by 
this insect is due to the work of both adults and larva' 
upon the tender shoots, which they render unfit for 
market, early in the season. Later they destroy, by 
defoliation, growing plants, and are particularly in- 
jurious to seedlings, the roots of which are weakened 
by having their tops devoured. Larvae, as well as 
beetles, attack the tenderest portions of the plants, but 
the latter gnaw with seemingly equal relish the epi- 
dermis, or rind, of the stems. The beetles are also 



♦Condensed from an official report by J. II. Chittenden of the- United 
Department of Agriculture. 



INJURIOUS INSECTS 



127 



accused of gnawing young shoots beneath the surface, 
causing them to become woody and crooked in growth. 
The beetle illustrated in Fig. 42 is a most beautiful 
creature — from the entomologist's point of view — 
slender and graceful in form, blue-black in color, with 
red thorax and lemon-yellow and dark blue elytra or 





FIG. 42 — COMMON ASPARAGUS BEETLE 
<;, beetle; b, egg; c, newly hatched larva ; </, full-grown larva 



wing covers, with reddish border. Its length is a 
trifle less than one- fourth of an inch. 

From the scene of its first colonization in Queen's 
County, N. Y., the insect migrated to the other truck- 
growing portions of L,oug Island. It soon reached 
southern Connecticut, and has now extended its range 
northward through Massachusetts to New Hampshire. 
Southward it has traveled through New Jersey, where 
it was first noticed in 1868, to southern Virginia. At 
present it is well established in the principal asparagus- 
growing sections of New England, of New Jersey, 



[28 ASPARAGUS 

Delaware, and Maryland, and is present in Pennsyl- 
vania, New York, ami Ohio. The question of distri- 
bution is an important one, as this species is rapidly 
extending its range. In a very few years we may ex- 
pert its spread to other portions of the States in which 
it is now local, and later it will naturally move west- 
ward to Indiana and other States west and south of 
there. 

The insect passes the winter in the beetle state 
under convenient shelter, and toward the end of April 
or early in Ma\ , according to locality, or at the season 
for cutting the asparagus for market, issues from its 
hibernating quarters and lays its eggs for the first 
brood. The eggs are deposited endwise upon the stem 
or foliage, and in the early spring upon the developed 
stalks, usually in rows of from two to six, or more. 
In from three to eight daws the eggs hatch, the young 
larvae, commonly called "grubs" or "worms," pre- 
senting the appearance indicated in Fig. 42, c. They at 
once begin to feed, and are from ten days to a fort- 
night, according to Fitch and others, in attaining full 
growth. When full grown the larva appears as in 
Fig. |j, d. It i.-^ soft and fleshy, much wrinkled, and 
in color dark gray or olive, which usually becomes 
lighter and yellowish with age. The mature larva 
enters the earth, and here, within a little rounded, 
dirt-covered cocoon which it forms, the pupa state is 
assumed. In from five to eight or more days the 
adult beetle is produced, which soon issues from the 
ground in search of food and of a suitable place for 
the continuance of the species. In Fig. 43 is shown a 
spray of asparagus, with the common asparagus beetle 



^- 




FIG. 43 — SPRAY AND TOP OF ASPARAGUS ATTACKED BY 
BEETLES 



130 ASPARAGUS 

iii its different stages, asparagus top at the right show- 
ing eggs and injury. 

The duration of the life cycle is about thirty days 
from the time the eggs are laid until the insects attain 
maturity, but the time is shorter in the hotter parts of 
a season than in the cooler days of May or September. 
In the District of Columbia the eggs, in the warmest 
part of midsummer, develop in three days and the 
pupae in five days. From this it may be estimated 
that, in the very warmest weather, the development of 
the insect may be effected in about three weeks from 
the time the egg is laid. In colder climates and in 
spring and autumn the development from egg to beetle 
will require from four to perhaps seven weeks. In the 
northern range of the species, two and perhaps three 
broods are usually produced, and farther southward 
there is a possibility of at least a fourth generation. In 
the latitude of the District of Columbia the beetles 
usually disappear to enter into hibernation in the lat- 
ter days of September. 

The common asparagus beetle has very efficient 
checks in the shape of predaceous insects, which prey 
upon its larvae and assist in preventing its undue in- 
crease. One of the most active of these predaceous 
insects is the spotted ladybird ( Megilla maculata DeG. ), 
represented in its several stages in the illustration ( Fig. 
44. ) The adult of this beetle is rose-colored, with 
numerous black spots. The spined soldier-bug ( Podi- 
sus spinosus Dal.) and the bordered soldier-bug {Sti- 
retrus anchorado Fab.) are also useful as destroyers of 
asparagus beetle larvae, which they catch and kill by 
impaling them upon their long beaks and sucking out 



INJURIOUS INSECTS 



131 



their juices. Certain species of wasps and small 
dragon-flies also prey upon the larvae. Asparagus 
beetles are very susceptible to sudden changes of tem- 
perature, and immense numbers of hibernating beetles 
are sometimes killed in winter during severe cold spells 
following " open " weather. 

Remedies. — The common asparagus beetle, under 
ordinary circumstances, may be held in restraint by 



ft*****^ 




FIG. 44 — SPOTTED LADYHIKD 
<7, larva ; b, empty pupal skin ; c, beetle, with enlarged antenna above 

the simplest means. Chickens and ducks are efficient 
destroyers of the insect, and their services are often 
brought into requisition for this purpose. A practice 
that is in high favor among prominent asparagus 
growers is to cut down all plants, including volunteer 
growth, in early spring to force the beetles to deposit 
their eggs upon new shoots, which are then cut every 
day before the eggs have time to hatch. Another 
measure of value consists in permitting a portion of the 
shoots to arrow and serve as lures for the beetles. Here 



132 ASPARAGUS 

they may be killed with insecticides, or the plants, 
after they become covered with eggs, maybe cut down 
and burned, and other shoots be allowed to grow up 
as decoys. One of the best and least expensive reme- 
dies against the larvae is fresh air-slacked lime dusted 
on the plants in the early morning while the dew is on. 
It quickly destroys all the grubs with which it comes 
in contact. The lime may be conveniently applied by 
means of a whisk-broom or a Paris green sifter. Even 
dry road dust applied in this manner will have a bene- 
ficial effect. The special merit of these insecticides is 
that they can be used without the least danger upon 
young shoots being cut for market or home use. 

Paris green and otherarsenites, applied dry in pow- 
der, mixed with flour or plaster, or in solution, answer 
equally well, after cutting has ceased, and possess the 
advantage of destroying beetles as well as larvae. One 
pound of Paris green to a barrel of fine plaster makes 
a sufficiently strong mixture. It may be necessary to 
make two of these applications at intervals or as often 
as the larvae reappear on the plants. Powdered helle- 
bore mixed with flour, one part to ten, or in solution 
of one ounce of hellebore to three gallons of water, is 
also very effective against the young larvae. Pyreth- 
nmi or buhach may be used in similar manner, and 
kerosene emulsion has been highly recommended by 
some experimenters. In hot weather, when the soil 
is dry, the larv:e may be brushed or shaken from the 
plants so that they will drop to the heated ground, 
where they die, being unable to regain the shelter of 
the plants. Whichever methods for the destruction of 
this pest are adopted, unless the work be done thor- 



INJURIOUS INSECTS 133 

oughly and with concerted action by all the growers in 
the section, the relief can not be permanent. 

THE TWELVE-SPOTTED ASPARAGUS BEETLE 
{Crioceris 12-punctata Linn) 

The presence of this insect in America was first 
detected in 1881, and it is still much rarer and conse- 
quently less injurious than the preceding species. In 
Europe, where it is apparently native, it is common 
but not especially destructive. The chief source of 
damage from this species is from the work of the 
hibernated beetles in early spring upon the young and 
edible asparagus shoots. hater beetles as well as 
larvae appear to feed exclusively upon the berries. 
The eggs are deposited singly, and apparently by pref- 
erence, upon old plants toward the end of shoots, 
which, lower down, bear ripening berries, and they 
are attached along their sides instead of at one end, as 
in the case with the eggs of the common species. 
Soon after the larva hatches from the egg it finds its 
way to an asparagus berry, enters it, and feeds upon 
the pulp. In due time it leaves the first berry for 
another one, and when full growth is attained it 
deserts its last larval habitation and enters the earth, 
where it transforms to pupa and afterward to the adult 
beetle. The life cycle does not differ materially from 
that of the common species, and there are probably 
the same or nearly as many generations developed. 

This species is at present distributed throughout 
the asparagus-growing country of New Jersey, partic- 
ularly in the vicinity of the Delaware River, the whole 



■34 



ASPARAGUS 



of Delaware, nearly the entire state of Maryland, the 
District of Columbia, the southeastern portion of 
Pennsylvania bordering the state line of New Jersey, 
northeastern Virginia in the vicinity of the western 
shore of the Potomac River, S'aten Island, and Monroe 
County, N. Y., the last mentioned being the most 
northern locality known for the species. The mature 
beetle in life rivals the common asparagus beetle in 




hie,. 45— TWELVE-SFOTTED ASPARAGUS BEETLE 

beetle; \ larva; c, second abdominal segment of larva ; d, ^aine 
of common asparagus beetle 

beauty, but may be distinguished by its much broader 
wing covers and its color. The ground color is 
orange red, each wing cover is marked with six black 
dots, ami the knees and a portion of the under surface 
of the thorax are also marked with black, as seen in 
Pig. 45, a. The beetle as it appears on the plant when 
in fruit very closely resembles, at a little distance, a 
ripe asparagus berry. The full-grown larva is shown 



INJURIOUS INSECTS 1 35 

in Fig. 45, b. It measures, when extended, three- 
tenths of an inch, being of about the same proportions 
as the larva of the common species, but is readily sep- 
arable by its ochraceous orange color. Fig. 45, c, 
shows the second abdominal segment of larva, and d 
same of the common asparagus beetle, much enlarged. 
Remedies. — The remedies are those indicated for 
the common asparagus beetle, with the possible excep- 
tion of caustic lime and other measures that are 
directed solely against that species, but the habit of 
the larva of living within the berry places it for that 
period beyond the reach of insecticides. The collec- 
tion and destruction of the asparagus berries before 
ripening might be a solution of the problem, but it is 
questionable if recourse to this measure would be 
necessary, save in cases of an exceptional abundance 
of the insect. 

THE ASPARAGUS MINER 

(Agrowyza simple*) 

In a recent bulletin from the New York Experi- 
ment Station, Prof. F. A. Sirrine describes a com- 
paratively new and injurious insect on asparagus. It 
was discovered on Long Island, and injures the young 
plants by mining just underneath the outside surface. 
The habits of this creature are such that there is little 
chance of applying remedies for its destruction. Cul- 
tural and preventive measures seem to be the most 
practical, and are suggested. The parent insect is a 
small fly, which deposits its eggs for the first brood 
early in June, and no doubt much can be done toward 
keeping the pest under control by not allowing small 
shoots to grow during the cutting season. Professor 



Sirrii is of - put 

g and 

' urnii _ ut the fact that 

stalk sh ... than in the 

5 it is earl} - in the 

seasoi - - of the 



XV 

FUNGUS DISEASES 



Asparagus is subject to the attacks of a number 
of fungi, the most widespread and destructive 
jjj||8^ being the "rust." the cause of which is a 
fungus described by De Candolle as Puccinia 
asparagi in the year 1S05. From this it is seen that 
the rust upon the asparagus has been known to scien- 
tists for nearly a hundred, years, and it is but reason- 
able to suppose that more or less of this fungus has 
existed beyond the history of man. 

The first mention of asparagus ru^t in the United 
States was by Dr. Harkness, who claimed to have 
observed it on the Pacific Coast in 1SS0, although it is 
doubtful whether the genuine aspar -: was ever 

found there. The first mention of it in the E 
States was in the fall of 1S96, and since then its range 
has been widening each year. Dr. Byron D. Halsted, 
of the Xew Jersey Experiment Station, was the first to 
call attention to it, and made it the subject of careful 
study. The results and conclusions dtrived from his 
experiments were published in a special bulletin, and 
from this the greater part of the following has been 
condensed. 

RECOGNITION OF THE RUST 

When an asparagus field is badly infested with the 
rust the general appearance is that of an unusually 




FIG. 46 — ASI'ARAGL'S STEMS AFFECTED WITH RUST 



FUNGUS DISEASES 



139 



early maturing of the plants (Fig. 46). Instead of 
the healthy green color there is a brown hue, as if 
insects had sapped the plants or frost destroyed their 
vitality. Rusted plants, when viewed closely, are 
found to have the skin of the stems lifted, as if blis- 




FIG. 47 — PORTION OK RUSTED ASPARAGUS STEMS 



tered, and within the ruptures of the epidermis the 
color is brown, as shown in Fig. 47. The brown color 
is due to multitudes of spores borne upon the tips of 
fine threads of the fungus, which aggregate at certain 
points and cause the spots. The threads from which 
the spores are produced are exceedingly small and 
grow through the substance of the asparagus stem, 



140 ASPARAGUS 

taking up nourishment and causing an enfeebled con- 
dition of the victim, which results in loss of the green 
color and the final rustiness of the plant, due to the 
multitude of spores formed upon the surface. These 
spores are carried by the wind to other plants, where 
new disease spots are produced ; but as the autumn 
advances a final form of spore appears in the ruptures 
that is cpiite different in shape and color from the first 
ones produced through the summer. The spores of 
late autumn, from their dark color, give an almost 
black appearance to the spots. 

There is another form which the rust fungus assumes 
not usually seen in the asparagus field, but may be 
found in early spring upon plants that are not subjected 
to cutting. This is the cluster-cup stage-, so named 
because the fungus produces minute cups from the 
asparagus stem, and in small groups of a dozen to 
fifty, making usually an oval spot easily seen with the 
naked eye. This stage of the fungus comes first in 
the order of time in the series, and is met with upon 
volunteer plants that may grow along the roadside or 
fence row, or in a field where all the old asparagus 
plants have not been destroyed. 

METHODS OF TREATING THE RUST 
All the cultivated varieties of asparagus are readily 
affected by the rust, although it has been found that 
some varieties, notably Palmetto, are less susceptible 
to its attacks than others. The most effectual means 
of controlling the disease are spraying, burning of the 
brush, cultivation, and irrigation. 

Spraying. — Dr. Halsted, in his first experiments, 



FUNGUS DISEASES 141 

used soda-bordeaux, hydrate-bordeaux, and potash- 
bordeaux. The spraying began June 2d, and ten spray- 
ings were applied during the season. The applications 
were made with a knapsack pump, and therefore were 
far more expensive than they would have been if the 
sprayings were made with horse-power. With the 
fungicide costing $5.00 per acre, and a machine that 
would spray two or more rows at a time, it would be 
possible to reduce the cost to $10.00 per acre, or even 
less. In effectiveness the soda-bordeaux stood first. 
Between the other fungicides there was but little dif- 
ference. The best results showed a reduction of rust 
of about one-quarter, which is not as satisfactory a 
result as had been expected. 

In the spraying work conducted by Professors G. 
E. Stone and R. E. Smith, at the Massachusetts Ex- 
periment Station, the results were more encouraging. 
The solutions used were potassium sulfid, saccharate 
of lime, and bordeaux mixture. The spraying was 
done with a knapsack sprayer, provided with a Ver- 
morel nozzle, and after the first application it became 
evident that the practice was of little importance on 
account of the difficulty in making the solution stick 
to the plant. For successful spraying of asparagus a 
finer nozzle is required than any that is now in the 
market. 

In some other experiments carried out on a small 
scale the asparagus plants were practically covered 
with solutions, when they were put on with an ordi- 
nary cylinder atomizer, and the lime solutions showed 
excellent sticking qualities; but with the ordinary 
coarse nozzle the solutions would run off of the glossy 



142 ASPARAGUS 

epidermal covering of the plant very readily. Should 
the spraying of asparagus ever become a necessity, 
then some apparatus which can be strapped to a 
horse's back should be used. The narrow space be- 
tween the rows forbids the use of the ordinary 
mounted appliances, and if spraying is to be carried 
on upon a large scale, it would be better to have the 
spraying mixture carried in some manner on the 
horse's back. In this way it would be possible to 
carry some thirty or forty gallons of mixture through 
the narrow rows. 

Burning the affeEled tops. — There can be no doubt 
that by the burning of the infested brush, after the 
cutting season, innumerable rust spores are destroyed. 
But if this is done before the stalks are entirely dead 
new ones will spring up at once, and in a few days 
will be as badly affected as the first. The burning of 
the tops in the summer has, moreover, a decidedly 
injurious effect upon the roots, seriously weakening 
their vitality, and making the growth of the following 
year still more susceptible to the infection. 

In the autumn, however, after the stalks are dead 
and dry, this damage does not prevail, and the spores 
upon old brush can be destroyed by burning the aspar- 
agus stems either as they stand in the field or by cut- 
ting and throwing the brush into piles. By the latter 
method many of the smaller branches will be broken 
off and scattered upon the ground, giving a suitable 
place for the spores to remain over the winter. For 
the same reason it is an advantage to burn the brush 
in autumn instead of the spring, and thus prevent the 
large loss of spores that would obtain. In other 



FUNGUS DISEASES 1 43 

words, burn the plants as soon as they become brown 
and lifeless, for any delay means the breaking up of 
the brittle, rusty plants, and a heavy sowing of the 
spores upon the ground. If the fire could go over the 
whole field of standing brush, that would be the most 
effective destruction. At best, with these precautions, 
many of the spores will get scattered upon the soil, 
and it would be well to sprinkle a thin coat of lime 
upon the ground and leave it there during the winter. 
If this could be followed by a turning under of the 
surface soil in the spring, it would bury the spores 
that might still be living, so that they would be out of 
reach. 

Cultivation and irrigation. — It has been observed 
that the injury to asparagus plants, as a result of rust, 
has been confined to dry soils, although there are 
places where beds in close proximity showed remark- 
able differences as to infection; and that robust and 
vigorous plants, even where cultivated on apparently 
dry soil, are capable of resisting the summer or inju- 
rious stage of the rust. 

In view of all the experiments so far made, and the 
experiences of practical asparagus growers, Stone and 
Smith conclude that : " The best means of controlling 
the rust is by thorough cultivation in order to secure 
vigorous plants, and in seasons of extreme dryness 
plants growing on very dry soil with little water- 
retaining properties should, if possible, receive irriga- 
tion." 

From a knowledge of the occurrences of the rust 
in Europe, and from observations made in Massachu- 
setts, they are led to believe that the outbreak of the 



144 ASPARAGUS 

asparagus rust is of a sporadic nature, and is not 
likely to cause much harm in the future, provided 
attention is given to the production of vigorous plants. 

ASPARAGUS LEOPARD SPOT 

Attention was called to this new disease by Prof. 
W. G. Johnson, in Bulletin No. 50, Maryland Experi- 
ment Station, September, [897. It was observed in a 
limited area in the asparagus growing section on the 
eastern shore of Maryland. The disease belongs to 
the group of anthracnoses, and is regarded by Dr. B. 
D. Halsted as a new species. In some places growers 
have mistaken it for the work of asparagus beetles. 
In general apearance it is very striking, the character- 
istic spots resembling the coat of the leopard. It has, 
therefore, been called " asparagus leopard spot," to dis- 
tinguish it readily from rust. The disease has been 
found only in a comparatively small area, but, no 
doubt will be found in other places later. Aspara- 
gus growers should, therefore, be on their guard and 
watch it. The remedies thus far successfully used are 
tin- same as those for rust. 



XVI 

ASPARAGUS CULTURE IN DIFFERENT 
LOCALITIES 

ASPARAGUS IN NEW ENGLAND 



SPARagus was grown in Concord, Mass., in a 
limited way as early as 1825. Mr. Edmund 
Hosmer used to carry it to market in season 
on Ins milk wagon. Timothy Prescott and 
F. R. Gourgas grew garden patches before 1840. 
To John B. Moore belongs the credit of growing and 
improving asparagus in this section of the v State. Mr. 
Moore selected the most promising shoots, and by a 
judicious system of culture succeeded in placing on 
the market a valuable variety in the shape of Moore's 
Cross-bred. Most of the "giant" asparagus grown 
in Concord to-day could be traced to the plants pro- 
duced by his skill. A sample bunch of twelve stalks, 
twelve inches long, from Moore's Cross-bred plants 
weighed four pounds eight ounces. In 1872 the first 
bed of asparagus of any size was set out by Mr. George 
D. Hubbard, who was laughed at by his neighbor 
farmers, who saw only ruin for the young man. The 
next year Mr. Hubbard set out more, so that for 
twenty years he was probably the largest grower in 
Massachusetts. 

Most of the leading varieties are grown in Concord, 
but the farmers are looking for a rust-proof variety and 



146 ASPARAGUS 

hope to find one. The Palmetto has not rnsted as 
badly as other kinds, but has not been grown so ex- 
tensively. One-year-old roots should be set by all 
means, as they start sooner, grow more vigorously, 
and in the end pay better. The roots should be care- 
fully selected from vigorous stock. A very large part 
of Concord asparagus is planted on sandy soil — i.e., 
good, rich, mellow corn land. This kind of land needs 
more manure, but then the crop is more satisfactory 
and the labor bill is not so high. The land previous 
to setting to asparagus should be well tilled and 
manured. 

Land for asparagus beds should be plowed late in 
the fall, and if stable manure can be afforded should be 
applied liberally. In the spring plow again early and 
harrow well. The roots should be planted in April as 
soon as the ground can be worked. After determining 
the direction of the rows a number of laths, four feet 
long, are placed in line where the first row is to be. It 
is very important to get the rows straight and an even 
distance apart. A good strong pair of horses and a 
large plow are used, a board being so placed above the 
mold-board of the plow that the loose soil will not fall 
back into the furrow. Drive the horses so that the 
middle of the evener will just come to the lath, then 
change the lath over its own length, if the rows are to 
be four feet apart, and that will mark the next row. 
Change each lath as you come to it, and when your 
first furrow is completed your second row will be all 
marked out. Return in the first row to make it deeper 
and also to straighten any bends. Shovel out the ends 
for a few feet and you will have a proper furrow to set 



CULTURE IN DIFFERENT LOCALITIES 1 47 

asparagus roots in. Proceed with the other rows in 
the same manner, and you will have a good-looking 
plantation. 

The larger growers in Concord set the plants two 
feet apart in the row and have the rows four feet apart. 
The plants are set in the bottom of the furrow, covered 
two inches, and should level up by fall so that the 
crowns will be six or seven inches below the surface. 
The furrows may be made very deep, so that manure 
can be placed in the bottom, or fertilizer may bestrewn 
before the plants are set or after. The roots should be 
spread out carefully in the bottom of the furrow, care 
being taken to have them in line. The bed should be 
cultivated with a fine-tooth cultivator or weeder often 
enough to prevent the growth of weeds. Keep the bed 
clean and do not have the trenches filled in before the 
last of September. The tops should not be cut in the 
fall of the first year, as the snow will be held by them, 
and thereby protect the roots to some extent. Some 
growers spread coarse manure on their beds in the fall 
to prevent the soil from being blown away and also to 
prevent winter killing, which, however, is rare. 

In the second year the bed may be plowed or 
wheel-harrowed in the spring as early as possible. Con- 
cord growers use animal manure or chemical fertil- 
izers, as the case may be or as the bed may require. 
The bed should be smooth harrowed just before the 
new shoots appear, and good clean cultivation given 
during the season. After harrowing or plowing in the 
third year, sow your chemicals or fertilizer broadcast 
and harrow in. A good formula for asparagus is : 
Nitrate of soda, 300 to 400 pounds; muriate of potash, 



148 ASPARAGUS 

400 pounds ; and fine ground bone, 600 pounds per 
acre. The shoots will appear about May 5th, and 
should be cut for about two weeks; then let them grow 
up and cultivate well during the season. 

Home-mixing of fertilizer is practiced by some of 
the growers in this vicinity, as it is cheaper and better. 
Any intelligent fanner can, with a little study, pur- 
chase and mix the raw materials to advantage. Not 
so much fertilizer is used as formerly by our growers, 
who are beginning to think that we use more plant 
food than the crop needs, thus throwing away many 
dollars each year. The cost of an acre of asparagus 
when properly planted and manured is about two hun- 
dred dollars, varying with the cost of help, manure, etc. 
The average product of asparagus beds is about two 
hundred and eighty-eight dozen hunches per acre — 
probably less since the rust appeared in 1897. 

Asparagus is grown largely on Cape Cod. There 
the roots are planted in rows six feet apart and four or 
five feet in the row. Seaweed is used largely in con- 
nection with fertilizer and manure. Various grains, 
oats, rye, etc., are sometimes sown to prevent the soil 
being blown away. The method of culture is much 
the same as elsewhere. 

At Concord the asparagus season opens usually 
about May 5th. The shoots are cut two or three 
inches under ground and should lie about eight inches 
in length. These are laid in handfuls on the ground 
by the cutter, each one cutting two rows. The prod- 
uct of four rows is laid in one row, making what is 
called a "basket row." These "basket rows" are 
gathered in baskets, boxes, or wheelbarrows, and taken 



CULTURE IN DIFFERENT LOCALITIES 1 49 

to the packing-shed. The asparagus is placed on a 
table and packed in racks of uniform size, passed to 
the person who ties, and then to be butted off. The 
bunches are then washed and set up in troughs ready 
for market. Water is added in season to swell the 
bunch tight and it is then packed in bushel boxes for 
market, going in by teams each night. 

Asparagus was free from pests until 1889, when 
the asparagus beetle made its unwelcome appearance. 
Methods of fighting the beetle were unknown to grow- 
ers generally at that time, but necessity soon taught 
us. Chickens and hens are used with good results, also 
Paris green dry was applied with an air-gun when the 
dew was on the foliage. Cutworms sometimes do the 
asparagus crop severe damage, but chickens and hens 
are a sure remedy — in fact, hens are a decided benefit 
in an asparagus field, keeping down many weeds. 

After learning to control the asparagus beetle we 
were visited by the rust, which has proved a stubborn 
foe and absorbs the sap which ought to go to the 
growing plant. Appearing in July, 1897, the rust 
seriously damaged many beds in eastern Massachu- 
setts. Many remedies have been suggested, but so far 
none of them have proved perfectly satisfactory. 
Growers have been advised to cut the infected tops as 
soon as the rust appears, but such a practice is all 
wrong, however good in theory. Do not cut the tops 
until the sap has left the stalks. This is the advice of 
a large number of asparagus growers and scientific 
men who are engaged in experimental work. 

Charles W. Prescott. 

Middlesex County, Mass. 



1 50 ASPARAGUS 

ASPARAGUS ON LONG ISLAND 

The cultivation of asparagus on Long Island does 
not differ materially, in most respects, from that 
practiced in other localities, other than in its extent. 
But there is probably more to be learned about its 
cultivation there than in any other section of the 
country, from the fact of its being grown under 
such changed conditions of soil. Here it can be 
shown that the character of soil is not, of itself, 
of great importance, and that on soil usually con- 
sidered worthless — on land that can be bought, 
uncleared, at from five to ten dollars per acre — aspara- 
gus can be made as profitable a crop as on land con- 
sidered cheap at one hundred dollars per acre. 

Nearly every farm, the northern boundary of 
which is the Long Island Sound, has from two to 
twenty acres of soil composed very largely of fine 
drift sand, in all respects like quick-sand in character. 
This, when mixed with light loam, as is frequently 
the case, is the most favorable land for asparagus, and 
in such it is largely grown, being unsuited to potatoes 
or cereals, and where grasses make but a feeble 
struggle for existence. Within five minutes' walk to 
the south the soil is from a lively to a quite heavy 
loam, in which corn, potatoes, cabbage, cauliflower, 
and, in fact, all other crops revel. In this soil the 
asparagus also finds a congenial home, but no better 
than in the sand, in which but little else can be grown; 
neither can it be growm here more profitably. The 
expense for fertilizers is a little more on the sandy 
soil, but the cost in labor on the heavy soil will quite 



CULTURE IN DIFFERENT LOCALITIES 151 

equal the cost of extra fertilizer required on the 
light. 

Whether away from a saline atmosphere a light 
soil would be as favorable as a heavy one for the as- 
paragus is a question that practical experiment only 
can settle. But it is an important one, as it is not 
generally supposed that it is possible to grow aspara- 
gus, at a profit, on such soils as are now being devoted 
to this crop on L,ong Island. 

That which has been called the barren wastes, the 
dwarf -pine and scrub-oak lands of Suffolk County, 
can be made most profitable farming lands may be a 
surprise to many, but that such is the case does not 
admit of a doubt. As evidence of this, let us state 
what is being done along these lines. Messrs. Hudson 
& Sons, leading canners of asparagus, have bought a 
farm of 525 acres of as poor land as it is possible to find 
on Long Island, which they are to devote exclusively 
to this crop. They have already more than fifty acres 
planted, and are getting the whole in readiness as 
rapidly as possible. This is no experiment, but simply 
doing on a large scale what has profitably been done 
on a small one. 

On similar soils a low estimate of net profit is 
$100 per acre, and there are many instances where 
double this profit is made. The price paid last season 
by the canners was $14 per 100 bunches for first 
quality, and $6 per 100 for culls, or "tips," as they 
are usually called. With good cultivation, which 
means a liberal supply of plant food — and there is no 
crop that requires more — and the surface kept clean, 
free from weeds, and frequently cultivated, so that the 



152 ASPARAGUS 

surface is at all times loose and fine to prevent evapo- 
ration, trie average yield is 2,500 bunches per acre. If 
we estimate the tips at 25 per cent, of the crop, the 
gross receipts will amount to $200 per acre. 

After a given acreage is ready for cutting, which 
is the third year after planting, the annual cost of cul- 
tivation is not very much, if any, more than that of a 
crop of potatoes. It is a question whether the actual 
cost of growing and marketing an acre of asparagus is 
not less than that of an acre of potatoes. Some growers 
assert it is three times as much work to take care of a 
given acreage of asparagus as of potatoes; admitting 
it, the relative cost is stated above. 

C. L. Allen. 

Nassau County, N. V. 

ASPARAGUS IN NEW JERSEV 

An important point in asparagus culture is to 
remove the top growth in the fall of the year. For 
this purpose I use a mowing-machine, then rake up 
the brush and burn it on the bed. After this I top- 
dress heavy with manure, leaving it lie on the land 
until spring. 

Just as soon as the ground is fit to work at all I put 
on a disk-harrow, and cut it about four times each way 
until it is thoroughly pulverized. Then with a smooth- 
ing-harrow I level it, and repeat the smoothing-harrow 
operation about once a week to keep down all weeds 
coming through. Then we let it go as long as we can, 
possibly two weeks, and at the appearance of weeds 
we take an ordinary sweet-potato ridger having a 



CULTURE IN DIFFERENT LOCALITIES 1 53 

plow on either side and run it astride the row, covering 
everything in the row. Doing this on Saturday after- 
noon holds the asparagus back over the following 
da}-. Then we take the middle out with a one-horse 
cultivator. This is done probably three times during 
the cutting season, which is eight weeks. With the 
help of one of these weeders, which we use at least once 
a week, we keep the bed quite clean of all weeds, and 
this I consider very essential. The cultivation should 
continue after cutting until the top growth becomes so 
large as to protect the ground, and then there will be 
but little trouble late in the season about weeds. It 
doesn't pay to grow them anywhere, and especially not 
in asparagus beds. 

In planting, the ground should be well prepared 
and furrowed out eight inches in depth, tour and one- 
half feet apart, and the plants two and one-half feet in 
the row, with a little fine manure in bottom of row; 
put about two inches of soil on the plants to cover. 
Then as the sprouts come up, keep on filling the 
furrows by cultivation. 

I have been using some commercial manures the 
past two years, applying at the rate of one ton to the 
acre about the rows in the spring; then nearly a ton of 
salt to the acre applied at any time. It helps keep 
weeds down and gives the asparagus a good flavor. 
Above all, do not forget to apply the fertilizer, and 
Plenty, with a big " P," of it — either stable manure or 
commercial fertilizers. Probably there will be less 
weeds by using the latter, but there needs to be a great 
deal of the former in the beginning for several years, 
to give the bed a good body of rich earth, from which 



154 ASPARAGUS 

the plants feed. It appears to me this is the secret of 
success. 

Much depends upon how asparagus is put up for 
the market, making it look attractive, in nice, clean, 
new crates and neatly prepared bunches, and the stalks 
must be large, tender, and of good flavor. Grass from 
a strong bed grown in twenty-four hours is much more 
tender and better in every way than grass grown in 
forty-eight hours from a poor bed. We are compelled 
to cut every twenty-four hours, or the asparagus would 
waste, and the gathering is accomplished in about three 
and one-half hours each day, early in the morning. 

Joel Borton. 

Salem County, A T . J. 

ASPARAGUS IN THE SOUTH 

There is no crop grown by the Southern trucker 
that has paid better than asparagus year after year. 
With many of the other truck crops sent North the 
growers have to contend with a host of planters 
who rush in at times to plant certain crops like 
early potatoes, peas, and beans, and whose inferior 
crops often glut the market and make the season 
unprofitable all around. These men drop out after 
a .season that their particular venture did not pay, and 
the regular truckers, being well aware that they would 
do so, always redouble their efforts the year after a 
bad season with any particular crop, knowing from 
experience that then it would be certain to be profit- 
able. 

But the asparagus crop is one into which the tern- 



CULTURE IN DIFFERENT LOCALITIES 1 55 

porary growers can not jump in and out of, for the 
crop requires special preparation of the soil and patient 
waiting and culture pending the time for reaping a 
harvest, and the men who are always ready to jump 
into the annual crops always wish to realize at once, 
and do not generally have the capital to put into a 
crop that requires several years before realizing. 
Hence the asparagus crop has been left to the regular 
market gardeners, and has been uniformly profitable 
when well managed. 

As regards soil for asparagus in the South, it should 
be deep, light, warm, and well drained, either natu- 
rally or artificially. The level sandy soils that abound 
in all the South Atlantic Coast region, having a com- 
pact subsoil of reddish clay under it at a moderate 
depth, makes the ideal soil for the early asparagus. 

In preparing such a soil for the crop, it is well to 
be thorough in the matter, for the crop is to remain 
there indefinitely, and if success is to be expected the 
previous preparation should be of the most thorough 
character. Hence, as the soils best adapted to the 
growth of the plant are commonly deficient in vegeta- 
ble matter, which desirable characteristic can only 
be found in abundance on the lands too low and 
moist for the asparagus crop, some preparatory culture 
should be used that will tend to increase the amount of 
organic decay in the soil. 

For this purpose there is nothing better than the 
Southern field or cow pea. The land should be pre- 
pared by giving it a heavy dressing of acid phosphate 
and potash, and putting it in peas sown broadcast at the 
rate of a bushel or more per acre. With a heavy dressing 



156 ASPARAGUS 

of the mineral fertilizers the pea crop will be heavy, 
and should be allowed to fully ripen and decay on the 
land, to be plowed under, and the process repeated the 
following year. In the mean time the seed should be 
sown for the growth of the roots for setting the land. 

Two crops ol cow-peas allowed to die on the land 
and turned under will give a store of vegetable 
matter that would be hard to get in any other manner. 
While heavy manuring with stable manures is very 
desirable where the material can be bad at a reasonable 
cost, the larger part, and, in fact, nearly all of the 
Southern asparagus, must be grown by the aid of chem- 
ical fertilizers, and the storing up of humus in the 
land from the decaying peas is an important factor in 
the placing of the soil in a condition to render the 
chemical fertilizers of more use, since the moisture- 
retaining nature of the organic matter plays an im- 
portant part in the solution of matters in the soil. 
Aside- from this, there will be a large increase in the 
nitrogen contents of the soil through the nitrification 
of this organic matter. 

The second crop of peas should be plowed under in 
late fall when perfectly ripe and dead, so that the land 
can be gotten into condition for planting in early 
spring. The land should be thoroughly plowed, and 
if the clay subsoil comes near the surface it should be 
loosened with the subsoil plow. Furrows are then 
run out four and a half to five feet apart, going twice 
in the furrow, and then cleaning out with shovels till 
there is a trench a foot deep. In the bottom of this 
trench place a good coat of black earth from the forest, 
or, if well-rotted manure can be had, usethatofcour.se. 



CULTURE IN DIFFERENT LOCALITIES 1 57 

Set the plants twenty inches apart in the furrow, and 
by means of hand-rakes pull in enough earth to barely 
cover the crowns. 

As growth begins, the soil is to be gradually 
worked in around the advancing shoots till the soil is 
level. Now give a dressing of 1,000 pounds per acre, 
alongside the rows, of a mixture of goo pounds of acid 
phosphate, 500 pounds of fish scrap, 200 pounds of 
nitrate of soda, and 400 pounds of muriate of potash, 
and keep the plants cultivated shallowly and flat with 
an ordinary cultivator till the tops are mature. An 
application of salt may be useful if applied in the fall 
in making some matters in the soil available, but salt 
in itself is of no use whatever to the plants. We 
would never apply salt in the spring, as it has a ten- 
dency to lessen nitrification and to retard the earliness 
of the shoots. 

The annual dressing of the fertilizer named should 
now be increased to a ton per acre, and it should 
be applied not later than February 1st in each 
year. After the tops have been cut in the fall it is a 
good plan to plow furrows from each side over the 
rows and to plow out the middles, for the shoots will 
always start earlier in an elevated ridge, which warms 
up earlier in the spring. 

Tlie second year after planting cutting may begin, 
and the shoots must be cut as fast as they show, care 
being taken to cut down near the crown of the roots, 
but not to injure the other shoots that may be start- 
ing. After cutting is over— and the length of time the 
bed should be cut is of little importance in the South, 
for the price at the point where it is shipped will 



158 ASPARAGUS 

always tell you when to stop — the soil should be again 
worked down flat, and if the growth has not been as 
satisfactory as could be wished, a dressing of 100 
pounds per acre of nitrate of soda at this time will 
usually pay very well. Asparagus should always be 
bunched in a machine made for that purpose. The 
bunches are packed in crates just deep enough to hold 
the bunches set upright on a bed of moss, and a cover 
of the same damp moss should be placed on top. 

Where there is a demand for green asparagus the 
planting should be done more shallowly in a simple 
furrow, and the entire culture should be flat and shal- 
low. The shoots are cut at the surface of the ground 
after they have attained the proper length. One thing 
is to be observed in either method, and this is that 
during the cutting season everything long enough 
must be cut daily, and that the little shoots be not 
allowed to run up and branch out. Cull the shoots 
after they are all out and bunch accordingly. Green 
shoots should be bunched by themselves and not 
mixed with the blanched ones. None but new, light 
crates should be used, for a clean and neat package 
will always favor its contents in the selling. 

W. F. Masse y. 

North Carolina Agricultural Experiment Station. 

ASPARAGUS CULTURE IN CALIFORNIA 

The growing of asparagus for market in Califor- 
nia is proving to be one of the most successful of 
its minor industries. There is a large area in the 
vState which is exactly suited to the production of 
this vegetable. This is the region of sedimentary 



CULTURE IN DIFFERENT LOCALITIES 1 59 

deposits, washed by waters that are to some extent 
brackish, or naturally saline. Commercial asparagus 
farming is limited to the reclaimed lands around 
the bay of San Francisco, the marshy deltas of the 
San Joaquin and Sacramento rivers, and the so- 
called peat lands of Orange and San Luis Obispo coun- 
ties. Small beds, however, for local consumption are 
to be found in California as generally and frequently 
as they are in other States. 

There is a fascination about asparagus culture that 
is founded on legitimate financial returns. It is prac- 
tically "a sure thing" when once established, and 
the conditions of climate and soil are such that the 
work attendant on production is a minimum in pro- 
portion to the return. No diseases of the plant have 
yet shown themselves in California, and it is seldom 
that the weather is unsteady enough to be a factor in 
limiting production. The deterring feature is the 
fact that it is not till the third year that a return can 
be expected on the investment. But as other crops, 
such as potatoes and beans, can be grown between the 
rows in the interim, the time of waiting is not so 
entirely an unproductive one as might at first be sup- 
posed. 

The methods of preparing, planting, and working 
are practically the same in all sections of California. 
The proposed beds are plowed as deeply as possible 
and thoroughly fertilized. All of the soils appropriate 
for commercial asparagus farming are so light that 
deep cultivation is a comparatively easy matter. Fur- 
rows for planting are then run and made double depth. 
Some growers think it worth while to distribute fer- 



l6o ASPARAGUS 

tilizer along these furrows and then turn for a third 
time, so as to enrich the ground immediately below the 
roots to be set out. These furrows are run from four 
to six feet apart, the latter being considered the better 
usage. In them one-year-old plants are then set by 
hand at distances varying from eighteen inches to 
three feet. The former distance is preferred by the 
Italian growers on Bay Farm Island in San Fran- 
cisco Bay, but the Southern growers and those along 
the Sacramento River lean to the greater distance. 
The only difference seems to be whether there will be 
sufficient nutriment in the soil to force the plant into 
giving as large and tender shoots as where each plant 
is allowed a larger area. The plants are set with the 
crowns about four inches below the surface and the 
roots are carefully spread out before covering. Plant- 
ing is done any time from November to April, but the 
middle of February is perhaps the most common time. 

The culture for the first year consists in keeping 
the soil loose and free from weeds. Ordinarily other 
crops are grown between the rows, and their cultiva- 
tion serves to keep the ground in proper condition. 
The asparagus is allowed to come up, feather, and seed 
without interference, no cutting being done the first 
year. Care, however, is taken to cut off the tops 
close to the ground in the fall before the seed begins 
to drop — the volunteer asparagus being the worst 
enemy in culture with which the grower has to deal. 
About the beginning of the rainy season a heavy coat- 
ing of manure is placed over the beds and left to be 
leeched in by the rains. 

The second vear some growers cut more or less for 



1 62 ASPARAGUS 

market, but the bed is then longer in coming to its 
full strength and will not give so large a product the 
following years. There is a variation in the spring 
working, according to the nature of the land. Where 
the soil has a tendency to be cold, the first plowing is 
away from the rows, so as to let the sun more quickly 
down to the starting plants. Where the soil is light, 
or the season forward, this plowing is omitted. The 
latter plowings are toward the rows, the effort being 
by ridging to give a long blanched surface to the 
shoots. For the canneries where nothing but the 
white product is put up, the shoots are cut the instant 
they show their tips above the surface. The local 
market shows a preference for the greener shoot, and 
so before cutting it is allowed to stretch itself up into 
the light. The third year regular cutting begins, and 
from that time forward the beds increase in the quan- 
tity and quality of the product for the next fifteen 
years. 

The methods of marketing are somewhat different 
from those practiced in the East. kittle or none of the 
asparagus is bunched. It is packed loose in boxes 
holding from forty to fifty pounds, and the loose 
product is retailed to the consumer by the pound. The 
first boxes begin to go out by the beginning of Feb- 
ruary, though small quantities can be seen in market 
as early as January 15th. The canning contracts run, 
as a rule, from March 1st to June 15th. After that the 
weather is so dry that the yield stops unless the beds 
are irrigated. In most sections, however, irrigation is 
not necessary up to this time. 

A notable exception to this is Bouldin Island, in 



CULTURE IN DIFFERENT LOCALITIES 1 63 

the San Joaquin River. This is reclaimed land, and 
lies some six or eight feet below the surface of the 
water. The soil is river silt on a peat stratum 
thirty feet deep. The top is so fine and friable that 
it does not, in spite of the surrounding river, hold 
enough moisture to keep the vegetation alive during 
the hot spring months. A north wind in May would 
lift up the whole surface of the island and carry it away 
in dust. It is an easy matter, however, to let in water 
through the dikes, and this is done in sufficient 
quantities to keep the soil in place. 

The question of profit in asparagus growing is one 
that can only be treated in a relative way. The 
industry is as yet so new, and instances of phenomenal 
returns from small holdings are so many, that it is hard 
to arrive at what might be called a commercial ratio 
of gain. It is safe to say, however, that with ordi- 
nary care there has never been an actual loss with 
asparagus culture in California. A low estimate of 
profit is probably $50 per acre. The cost of prep- 
aration and planting where diking has not been 
necessary has seldom been more than $100 per acre. 
The gross returns taken from recent years' reports 
vary from $100 to $200 per acre, so that it can readily 
be seen that the return to the asparagus farmer is very 
fair. Most of the farms in California are in rented 
land. The Bay Farm Island people pay a ground rent 
of $50 per acre. On Bouldin Island the rental is on a 
basis of 40 per cent, of the net proceeds. In Fig. 48 
is presented a view of a fully established asparagus 
field on Bouldin Island. 

Warren Chenev. 

Alameda Comity, Cal. 



164 ASPARAGUS 



ASPARACTS IN FRANCE 



Asparagus is grown much more abundantly and to 
a much larger size in France than in England. The 
country is half covered with it in some places near 
Paris ; farmers grow it abundantly, cottagers grow it, 
and everybody eats it. Near Paris it is chiefly grown 
for market in the valley of Montmorency and at Argen- 
teuil, and it is cultivated extensively for market in 
many other places. About Argenteuil several thou- 
sand persons are employed in the culture of asparagus. 

It is grown to a large extent among the grape-vines 
as well as alone. The vine under field culture is cut 
down to near the old stool every year, and allowed to 
make a few growths which are tied erect to a stake. 
One plant is put in each open spot, and given every 
chance of forming a large specimen, and this it gener- 
ally does. The growing of asparagus among the vines 
is a very usual mode, and a vast space is thus covered 
with it about here. 

It is also grown in other and special ways. Per- 
haps the simplest and most worthy of adoption is to 
grow it in shallow trenches. These are usually about 
four feet apart. The soil generally is a rather stiff 
sandy loam with calcareous matter in some parts, but 
the soil has not all to do with the peculiar excellence 
of the vegetable. It is the careful attention to the 
wants of the plant which produce such good results. 
Here, for instance, is a young plantation planted in 
March, and from the bttle ridges of soil between the 
trenches have just been dug a crop of small early 
potatoes. In England the asparagus would be left to 



CULTURE IN DIFFERENT LOCALITIES 1 65 

the free action of the breeze, but the French cultivators 
never leave a young plant of asparagus to the wind's 
mercy while they can find a stake of oak about a yard 
long. 

When staking these young plants they do not insert 
the support close to the bottom, as we are too apt to do 
in other instances, but a little distance off, so as to avoid 
the possibility of inj uring the root ; each stake leans over 
its plant at an angle of forty-five degrees, and when 
the shoots are big enough to touch it, or to be caught by 
the wind, they are tied to the stake. The ground in 
which this system is pursued being entirely devoted to 
asparagus, the stools are placed very much closer 
together than they are among the vines — say, at a dis- 
tance of about a yard apart. The little trenches are 
about a foot wide and eight inches deep. 

The best asparagus in France is grown at Argen- 
teuiland by one system mainly. The plants — one-year 
seedlings (never older) — are planted in shallow trenches 
seven or eight inches deep, the plants a little more than 
one yard apart and the lines four feet apart. No 
manure is given at planting ; 110 trenching or any 
preparation of the ground, beyond digging the shallow 
trench, takes place. In subsequent years a little 
manure is given over the roots in autumn; the soil, 
thrown out of the trenches and forming a ridge between 
them, is planted with a light crop in spring. In all 
subsequent years the earth is placed over the crowns 
in spring and removed in autumn. 

Under this system good results are obtained in 
various soils, the only difference being that on cold 
clay soils the planting is not quite so deep. Every 



1 66 ASPARAGUS 

winter the growers notice the state of the young roots, 
ami any spot in which one has perished they mark 
with a stick, to replace the plant the following March. 
Early every spring they pile up a little heap of fine 
earth over each crown. When the plantation arrives 
at its third year they increase the size of the mound, 
or, in other words, a heap of finely pulverized earth is 
placed over the stool, from which some, but not much, 
asparagus is cut the same year, taking care to leave the 
weak plants and those which have replaced others 
untouched for another year. 

The proce>s of gathering is interesting to the 
stranger. Asparagus knives of various forms are 
described in both French and English books, but one 
is confidently told by the growers that they are only 
fitted for amateurs who do not care to soil their fingers. 
The cultivators here never use a knife, the work being 
done with the hands. Gatherings are made every 
second day about the end of April, but in May when 
the growth is more active the stools arc gathered from 
every day. 

The French mode of cultivating asparagus differs 
from the English principally in giving each plant 
abundant room to develop into a large healthy speci- 
men, in paying thoughtful attention to the plants at 
all times, and in planting in trenches instead of a 
raised bed. They do not, as is done in England, go 
to great expense in forming a mass of the richest soil 
far beneath the roots, but rather give it at the surface, 
and only when the roots have begun to grow strongly. 
— W. Robinson, in " Parks and Gardens of Paris." 



INDEX 



PAGE 

American varieties 18 

P.arr s Mammoth 18 

Columbian Mammoth White . . 19 

Conover's Colossal 19 

Donald's Elmira 19 

Eclipse 19 

Hub 20 

Mammoth 20 

Moore's Cross-bred 20 

Palmetto 20 

Purple top or green top 21 

Asparagus culture in different 

localities 145 

in New England 145 

on I,ong Island 150 

in New Jersey 152 

in the South 154 

in California 15S 

in France 164 

Asparagus species 6 

plumosus nanus 6 

medeoloides 6 

Sprengeri A 

falcatus S 

laricinus S 

racemosus 10 

sarmentosus 10 

Broussoneti 13 

officinalis 13 

acutifolius 16 

aphyllus 16 

Botany 4 

Bunchers 91 

Bunching 89 

Canning 112 

Eastern methods 112 

Pacific coast methods 118 



PAI .1: 

Crates 96 

Cultivation 61 

the first year 6i 

the second year 

the third and future years . 66 

Cultural varieties 17 

Cutting 83 

Manner of 84 

Drying 122 

Edible species 13 

European varieties 21 

German Giant 22 

Argenteuil 22 

Yellow Burgundy ....... 22 

Fall treatment 68 

Fertilizers and fertilizing .... 72 

Forcing mo 

in greenhouse 

in hotbeds and frames .... 103 

in field 104 

in Cornell asparagus house , . 110 

Fundus diseases 1 ~ 

Asparagus rust 137 

Asparagus leopard spot .... 144 
Growing asparagus without trans- 
planting .;-■ 

Harvesting and marketing ... 83 

Historical sketch 1 

Insects 126 

Common asparagus beetle . . . 126 

Twelve-spotted asparagus beetle [3 ; 

Spotted ladybird 130 

Asparagus miner 135 

Knives v ^ 

Male and female plants .... (0 

Marketing 96 

Ornamental species 6 



1 68 



ASPARAGUS 



PAGE 

Planting 49 

Distance to plant 50 

Depth of 53 

Manner of 54 

Placing the roots 59 

Plants, Raising of 30 

Pol grown asparagus plants 6 

Preparation of the ground . ... 45 

Preserving asparagus 112 

Raising of plants 

Renovating old asparagus beds. -<> 

Rubber bands g -, 



PAGE 

Salt as a fertilizer 8i 

Seed-gn •« ing . 

Selectii >n ill' plants 

Soil and its preparation \ ; 

Sorting 

Sorting and bunching . . 89 

Sterilizing in> 

Subsoiling . ... .47 

Transplanting, ('■rowing aspara 
gus v\ ithout ... 

Tying material 

Vai iety tests 



1 COPY DEL TO CAT. D!V. 

NOV. 22 i90j 






